Jul 10, 2017 · 1 min read
Here there’s a serious question for the old Bolkonsky, which he is failing to face up to. Of course it doesn’t make sense to be so critical of his household, but he is actually focussing his efforts on something within his control — new building on his estate. The course of the war, on which he has access to better information than most via Prince Andrei, is really outside of his control…
Epictetus reminds us that our good faith and our shame are always ours — but that doesn’t really solve the problem of how to behave when huge armies are advancing towards us. You can’t always ignore the outside world.
