Shine On, You Crazy Diamond

<p>There has always been an odd streak in the Stoics. <a href='https://dailystoic.com/zeno/?utm_source=convertkit&amp;utm_medium=convertkit&amp;utm_campaign=crazy-diamond'>Zeno used to</a> practice begging people for money, even though he had plenty. <a href='https://dailystoic.com/cleanthes/?utm_source=convertkit&amp;utm_medium=convertkit&amp;utm_campaign=crazy-diamond'>Cleanthes worked as a manual laborer </a>for so long, some in Athens thought it might be a front for something. <a href='https://dailystoic.com/cato/?utm_source=convertkit&amp;utm_medium=convertkit&amp;utm_campaign=crazy-diamond'>Cato used to walk around</a> bareheaded and barefooted, wearing dingy clothing. <a href='https://dailystoic.com/seneca/?utm_source=convertkit&amp;utm_medium=convertkit&amp;utm_campaign=crazy-diamond'>Seneca was completely unafraid</a> both of regularly practicing poverty (despite his wealth) and unafraid of showing his wealth (despite his reputation as a Stoic). He also experimented with vegetarianism at a time when it was deeply transgressive in Rome. And can you imagine the scene <a href='https://dailystoic.com/marcus-aurelius/?utm_source=convertkit&amp;utm_medium=convertkit&amp;utm_campaign=crazy-diamond'>Marcus Aurelius</a> created when he would write and read philosophy while the gladiatorial games raged on beneath his box seats in the coliseum? </p><p>The Stoics were not afraid to be themselves, to be seen as weird. In fact, that’s something <a href='https://dailystoic.com/epictetus/?utm_source=convertkit&amp;utm_medium=convertkit&amp;utm_campaign=crazy-diamond'>Epictetus said</a>: If you want to improve, if you want to achieve wisdom, you have to be okay looking strange or even clueless from time to time. Epictetus also tells us the <a href='https://dailystoic.com/is-it-even-a-question/?utm_source=convertkit&amp;utm_medium=convertkit&amp;utm_campaign=crazy-diamond'>story of Agrippinus</a>, who refused to keep a low profile during Nero’s reign, who refused to conform or tamp down his independent thinking. Why do th