Definition
Stoic refers to someone who is unemotional or shows great self-control, especially in the face of adversity or pain. The term can also refer to the ancient philosophy of stoicism, which teaches self-control and the acceptance of the present moment.
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Excerpts from News Articles
The conceit behind this term — “unapologetic” — has always seemed to me like Black people’s defiant response to many white people’s judging eyes. To be unapologetic is to remain stoic in the face of judgment. But to me, Coates has always represented something different.
In “The Chosen,” when Jesus heals people, his response is laughter and joy. I find that Jesus is often portrayed in art and film as kind of a stoic sufferer — aloof and silent. And you’re a warm, laughing Jesus. Was that something you decided with the director, or did that just happen naturally for you?
“We are very anti-war,” said Nikita, a stoic 32-year-old Russian with a moustache and a head of thick black hair hailing from Siberia, who wants to be referred to by his stage name. He started to host stand-up nights for a Russian-speaking audience a couple of months before the war. The invasion has turned them into an act of defiance.
“Prince William is so stoic in public it is always quite the treat to see him act like any other zealous fan when he watches football,” one person wrote. “Prince George is definitely his father’s twin.”
The tape runs out after 22 tracks, but a fragment of a set list written down from memory by a fellow Stoic suggests Sweet Little Sixteen and Long Tall Sally may have completed a tally of 24.
People get angry for all sorts of reasons, from the trivial ones (someone cut me off on the highway) to the really serious ones (people keep dying in Syria and nobody is doing anything about it). But, mostly, anger arises for trivial reasons. That’s why the American Psychological Association has a section of its website devoted to anger management. Interestingly, it reads very much like one of the oldest treatises on the subject, On Anger, written by the Stoic philosopher Lucius Annaeus Seneca back in the first century CE.
As Roman initially panics then slides into denial, as Kendall attempts to stay remarkably stoic while the cracks form in his face, as Shiv’s annoyance crumbles into despair, and as Connor’s true feelings burst out; the cast and writers captured the disorientating feeling of world-shifting news.
Beethoven suffered multiple illnesses, some more serious than others. Although he treated all of these with a stoic attitude, on one occasion he did believe that he was dying. He felt that he still had too much to offer the world and that he could not leave.
Ann was a role that combined worldliness with a sort of sweet naivety, an inner strength and an outer straightforwardness. Her blistering, wine-soaked monologue to Ryan about his dad’s true nature was a standout moment of the final season, when her pain bubbled over after several years of her stoic attempts to move on. On the surface, the mysterious, enticing femme fatale that is Anna in Obsession couldn’t be less like Ann (though as the story unfolds there are more and more parallels between them).
Public opinion on Parker Bowles has oscillated between “what a longsuffering, stoic cuckold” and “what a loveless bounder who drove her into the arms of Charles with his own behaviour”. One of Parker Bowles’ and Camilla’s breaks, in 1970, was because he thought he might have a shot at Princess Anne; he and Anne reignited their friendship during Anne’s separation from Mark Phillips in the late 1980s.
GEORGE TOWN: In a rustic Malaysian workshop about a century old and cluttered with racks of tyres, a stoic , white-haired man dressed in a T-shirt and shorts inspects his nearly finished trishaw.
When U.S. figure skater Nathan Chen won the gold medal in men’s figure skating at the 2022 Winter Olympics, a Washington Post article attributed his win to a fierce, focused, “robotic” zeal. This robotic characterization draws on a dated stereotype of Asians as stoic , unfeeling workaholics.
Cultural expectations to remain stoic can also delay men’s care. For instance, although diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and hypertension are common in men and women, men often wait longer to seek care and the illnesses are diagnosed at later stages, leading to more damage and poorer outcomes.
The Mahonys move, again, to the seaside, where Richard has a final and complete mental breakdown and incinerates the family home. Stoic Mary must become a postmistress in a nothing country town. The trilogy ends with Richard’s death: “All that was mortal of Richard Mahony has long since crumbled to dust….
It’s spread to journalism too. Confessional columns seriously began in 1997, when the journalist Ruth Picardie died at 33 from breast cancer after writing about her experience in the Observer; even those who don’t find illness fascinating couldn’t deny the power of Picardie’s stoic recording of this most momentous life-event. But since then, there’s been a huge growth – I can’t call it ‘development’ as that implies maturing – of personal columns, many of them made up of middle-aged women gushing about ‘dating’ in a way that wouldn’t look out of place in the teenage magazines of my youth.
Amid today’s gentrification and smart shops, it’s easy to forget the extraordinary history this city and what its stoic people have been through, which engraved itself into the hearts of innumerable Brits through 75 years of BAOR presence. I wouldn’t be writing this were it not for the date nights my parents – a British Army dentist and nurse – took in East Berlin after they met. Set against a potential third world war, an agreement between the allies and Russians cordially put aside the nuclear standoff to permit officers to cross the divided city.
In March 2012, Humphries announced a farewell stage show, Eat Pray Laugh!, which toured Australia, the UK and the US. It featured his best-known characters – Dame Edna, the stoic old convalescent Sandy Stone, and Sir Les Patterson (with a bit part for his brother, Gerard, a paedophile priest). But in an eerie finale, there were glimpses of other unforgettable creations: among them Lance Boyle, the trade union racketeer; Brian Graham, the 1960s Sydney executive and closet homosexual in navy blue shorts and long white socks; and Phil Philby, the lefty experimental film-maker.
To see my stoic , silent husband with his defences down has been restorative.
His stoic face reflected the fear and horror known only to those who had witnessed the fight in the forest.
This Roman view of cosmetics was at least partially rooted in Stoicism , a philosophy that foregrounded moral goodness and human reason. Stoics regarded beauty as intrinsically related to goodness.
Earlier Friday, Musk sat stoically in court during the trial's closing arguments while he was both vilified as a rich and reckless narcissist and hailed as a visionary looking out for the "little guy."
A large part of the adaptation’s success is due to the strength of its lead actors, Pedro Pascal (Joel) and Bella Ramsey (Ellie), who manage the necessary balance between pragmatic stoicism and deeply wounded vulnerability.
Henry was angry. He was also stoical and practical, and exercised his legal right to request copies of his medical records to seek second opinions. The medical staff were amenable, but it took almost four weeks to obtain copies. Nor did we blame the clinicians: we recognised the pressures they worked under. We knew they could probably have done without our constant emails. Then again, how else were we to access Henry’s records?
From sodden mud to jarring rocks and swollen rivers, Lucas’s quest is fraught with peril, and the constant threat of failure if not death. Yet as Lucas declares: “So much of the divine piles up in me that I cannot die…” Instead he soldiers on, led by taciturn guide Ragnar, played with dismissive stoicism by Ingvar Eggert Sigurðsson. While Lucas’s head may be in the clouds, Ragnar is made of earthier stuff and harbours little affection for his clerical companion. It’s clear from the outset that they will come to blows, both mental and physical.
Finally, they shared a tragic sense of life that did not paralyze their capacity for moral action. Both men rejected organized religion and searched for some other way to understand the presence of pain and suffering in the world; they sought some other model—for Lincoln, a kind of private providentialism; for Darwin, a stoical resignation and contemplation of the power of time—to make sense of mortality. They were stoics but not cynics.
As for the infamous striptease scene, here’s what happened. Once James Norton had whipped off his clothes I glanced over at the nearest usherette, whose eyes were fixed on her shoes. Not interested. Sitting through this epic bore is like a trip to A&E. As the hours pass, and nothing happens, you become aware of new and unimagined reserves of stoicism within your soul. Truly, a spiritual experience. But not in a good way.
Claps rang out, people rallied, national pride was buoyed – carrying us stoically through some of the toughest of times. And promises were made. Never again would we demand so much of our frontline workers. Never again would such a high cost be paid by our most vulnerable. Never again would we be so ill-equipped for a pandemic.
The Only White, another show about racial oppression, is set in South Africa in 1964. A terrorist deposits a suitcase full of dynamite at a whites-only train station. Despite several bomb warnings, the device goes off and kills an elderly white lady, Mrs Rhys. The cops focus on the Hain family who oppose apartheid but who also deplore violence. Did one of their chums plant the exploding suitcase? They tap the Hains’ phone line and harass them by thumping aggressively on their front door. ‘That’s Special Branch,’ says Mr Hain stoically . ‘I’d recognise their arrogant knocking anywhere.’
But the reaction to Mulvaney’s milestone reminds us of how problematic these ideas of masculinity can be. If conventional views of manliness could be reduced to a recipe, I’d guess it would be one part stoicism , two parts anger, three parts lust, four parts control over women. This cocktail can be dangerous, creating men who struggle to process complex emotions, deal with negative feelings in a healthy way, or even express love.
If you’re being paid to be still, you learn to work through that pain barrier. I approach it stoically
I’m told straight people occasionally partake, too. But Brian says the fuss over Bud Light’s pint-size partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney shows that some of them are drinking another cocktail: “one part stoicism , two parts anger, three parts lust, four parts control over women.”
“If your economic development is based on boom-and-bust industries like mineral extraction and mining, people come and go and don’t put down ties,” she notes. “And there’s lower religiosity in most of the region, so that isn’t there to foster social ties or perhaps to provide a moral framework against suicide. Put that together and you have a climate of social isolation coupled with a culture of individualism and stoicism that leads to an inability to ask for help and a stigma against mental health treatment.”
Michel sat stoically as each count came down on Wednesday and did not comment to reporters outside the courthouse.
