Liam Milburn
@stoicbreviary.bsky.social
Author of A Stoic Breviary: Classical Wisdom in Daily Practice
stoicbreviary.substack.com
stoicbreviary.substack.com
Frederic Remington, The Scout: Friends or Foes? (c. 1905)
November 24, 2025 at 12:07 AM
Frederic Remington, The Scout: Friends or Foes? (c. 1905)
Icon of Holy Wisdom, Moscow (15th century)
November 23, 2025 at 12:11 AM
Icon of Holy Wisdom, Moscow (15th century)
J.M.W. Turner, Norham Castle, Sunrise (1845)
November 20, 2025 at 9:42 PM
J.M.W. Turner, Norham Castle, Sunrise (1845)
Ivan Aivazovsky, View of Constantinople by Evening Light (1846)
November 20, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Ivan Aivazovsky, View of Constantinople by Evening Light (1846)
We all live on the past, and through the past are destroyed.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
IMAGE: Hubert Robert, Roman Ruins (c. 1760)
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
IMAGE: Hubert Robert, Roman Ruins (c. 1760)
November 20, 2025 at 12:42 AM
We all live on the past, and through the past are destroyed.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
IMAGE: Hubert Robert, Roman Ruins (c. 1760)
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
IMAGE: Hubert Robert, Roman Ruins (c. 1760)
Self-control is the highest virtue, and wisdom is to speak truth and consciously to act according to nature.
—Heraclitus
IMAGE: Thomas Moran, Ulysses and the Sirens (c. 1900)
—Heraclitus
IMAGE: Thomas Moran, Ulysses and the Sirens (c. 1900)
November 18, 2025 at 10:27 PM
Self-control is the highest virtue, and wisdom is to speak truth and consciously to act according to nature.
—Heraclitus
IMAGE: Thomas Moran, Ulysses and the Sirens (c. 1900)
—Heraclitus
IMAGE: Thomas Moran, Ulysses and the Sirens (c. 1900)
M.C. Escher, Lizard II (1941)
November 18, 2025 at 2:49 PM
M.C. Escher, Lizard II (1941)
Salvator Rosa, Landscape with Jacob's Dream (c. 1665)
November 18, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Salvator Rosa, Landscape with Jacob's Dream (c. 1665)
Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Jacob and the Angel (1672)
November 18, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Jacob and the Angel (1672)
Salvator Rosa, Landscape with Jacob's Dream (c. 1665)
November 15, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Salvator Rosa, Landscape with Jacob's Dream (c. 1665)
Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Jacob and the Angel (1672)
November 15, 2025 at 9:04 PM
Claude Lorrain, Landscape with Jacob and the Angel (1672)
We are as much as we see. Faith is sight and knowledge. The hands only serve the eyes.
—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (9 April, 1841)
IMAGE: Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (c. 1818)
—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (9 April, 1841)
IMAGE: Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (c. 1818)
November 10, 2025 at 10:07 PM
We are as much as we see. Faith is sight and knowledge. The hands only serve the eyes.
—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (9 April, 1841)
IMAGE: Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (c. 1818)
—from Henry David Thoreau, Journals (9 April, 1841)
IMAGE: Caspar David Friedrich, Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (c. 1818)
To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.
—from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (20 December, 1822)
IMAGE: Vank Cathedral, Heaven, Earth, Hell (c. 1660)
—from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (20 December, 1822)
IMAGE: Vank Cathedral, Heaven, Earth, Hell (c. 1660)
November 10, 2025 at 9:47 PM
To different minds, the same world is a hell, and a heaven.
—from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (20 December, 1822)
IMAGE: Vank Cathedral, Heaven, Earth, Hell (c. 1660)
—from Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals (20 December, 1822)
IMAGE: Vank Cathedral, Heaven, Earth, Hell (c. 1660)
Keep yourself aloof at the time of your devotion from those who scoff, and those who ridicule piety and the pious.
—Ramakrishna
—Ramakrishna
November 8, 2025 at 9:43 PM
Keep yourself aloof at the time of your devotion from those who scoff, and those who ridicule piety and the pious.
—Ramakrishna
—Ramakrishna
Ἀδωροδόκητος δίκαζε
Judge incorruptibly
—Delphic Maxims
Judge incorruptibly
—Delphic Maxims
November 8, 2025 at 9:35 PM
Ἀδωροδόκητος δίκαζε
Judge incorruptibly
—Delphic Maxims
Judge incorruptibly
—Delphic Maxims
Matthäus Merian, The Basel Dance of Death: The Knight (1616)
November 6, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Matthäus Merian, The Basel Dance of Death: The Knight (1616)
Claude-Joseph Vernet, A Mountain Landscape with an Approaching Storm (1775)
November 5, 2025 at 2:15 AM
Claude-Joseph Vernet, A Mountain Landscape with an Approaching Storm (1775)
Francisco Bayeu, Providence Presiding over the Virtues and Faculties of Men (c. 1780)
November 5, 2025 at 2:10 AM
Francisco Bayeu, Providence Presiding over the Virtues and Faculties of Men (c. 1780)