
Books & Writers · The Creative Process: Novelists, Screenwriters, Playwrights, Poets, Non-fiction Writers & Journalists Talk Writing, Life & Creativity How to Live a Good a Life - Stoic Wisdom & the Founding Fathers - Highlights - JEFFREY ROSEN
Mar 26, 2024
Join Jeffrey Rosen, President and CEO of the National Constitution Center, as he explores the influence of Cicero on America's Founding Fathers. He reveals how their readings shaped ideas of self-mastery and civic virtues. Rosen organizes his insights around 12 virtues shared by Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, while confronting the hypocrisy of slavery among the founders. With a cautionary note on partisanship and technology's impact on focus, he emphasizes the importance of deep reading and harmony in both life and society.
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Classical Roots Of Founders' Happiness
- Cicero's Tusculan Disputations shaped the founders' idea of planting seeds for future generations and framed happiness as self-mastery.
- Jeffrey Rosen links Cicero's grief manual to a philosophy of self-improvement embraced by Adams and Jefferson.
Virtues As A Structural Lens
- Both Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson drafted nearly identical lists of 12–13 virtues, inspiring Rosen's book structure.
- Rosen uses founders' lives to show how virtues operate in practice rather than as mere checklists.
Internalize Virtues, Don't Checklist Them
- Practice virtues holistically instead of cycling through them as isolated weekly tasks.
- Internalize the virtues to achieve a vibe of harmony, balance, and self-mastery rather than checking boxes.



