Stoicism
Etymology
Founded by Zeno of Citium in Athens around 300 BCE. The name comes from the Greek "stoa," the “painted porch” (Stoa Poikile) where he taught. Its most-read voices are the later Roman Stoics — Seneca, the former slave Epictetus, and the emperor Marcus Aurelius, whose private “Meditations” survive. The lowercase sense, “bearing hardship without complaint,” is a narrowing of the original.
noun · /STOH-ih-siz-um/
An ancient philosophy holding that a good life comes from virtue and reason, and from calmly accepting what lies outside our control.
What it names
A practical handle for emotional steadiness — the discipline of separating what you can influence from what you can’t, and investing your effort only in the former.
Example
She met the layoff with real stoicism, updating her résumé instead of raging at a decision she could not reverse.
Related idea
Hedonism makes pleasure the aim of life; Stoicism is nearly its mirror, locating the good in virtue and inner calm rather than in feeling good.