"If we judge as good and evil only the things in the power of our own choice, then there is no room left for blaming gods or being hostile to others."

Admiral James Stockdale was shot down over North Vietnam in 1965 and spent seven years as a prisoner of war. A student of Epictetus's works in Stoicism, he anchored himself in one distinction: What was his (judgment, resolve, conduct) and what was not (torture, captors, outcomes). He led, resisted, and survived by refusing to place his good in anything outside his own choices.

If you keep "good" and "evil" confined to your own choices, you cut the roots of grievance. Weather, markets, illness, other peoples' opinions: none are authored by you. Treat them as conditions of the game, not the score. Your business is to judge rightly and act by the four virtues. When you sugger, ask first, "Did I put my good in an external?" If yes, retrieve it. The moment you stop calling externals "good" or "bad", anger at fate and hostility toward others become senseless. You may correct people, set boundaries, or leave situations, but hatred requires the false premise that you've stolen your good.

Common Errors to Discard

1. Calling promotion, praise, loss, or pain "good/evil": They are materials, not measures.
2. Excusing vice by pressure: Pressure reveals you, it does not author you.
3. Confusing justice with hostility: Accountability is clean action, and hatred is an irrational extra.
4. Smuggling externals back in: Performing virtue for optics, chasing apology as salvation, or treating agreement as necessary are all forms of this.

Modern Life

• At work, someone takes credit for your work. You cannot control their choice or the room's reaction. You can control your factual correction once, steady conduct, and continued delivery of good work. Don't create a grievance narrative.
• In relationships, your partner's moods and decisions are outside your control. You can speak honestly, hold firm boundaries, and provide a willingness to help without enabling.
• In health, illness and accidents are external. You can adhere to treatment, maintain discipline, and refuse to poison others with self-pity.

Maxims

• No one can steal my good; only I can abandon it.
• Blame looks outward, responsibility looks inward.
• Correct without hatred, protect without malice.
• Outcomes test me, choices define me.

In-depth Concepts

Dichotomy of Control

Two bins, no third. Anything not wholly yours goes in the external bin. This is a sorting tool, not a metaphysical debate.

Assent & Authorship

Events arrive and you supply the judgment. That judgment is the only proper site of praise or blame.

Value Line

Only virtue is truly good. Only vice is truly evil. All else is "preferred" or "dispreferred". This line negates resentment at gods and hostility toward neighbors while preserving justice and boundaries.