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Welcome to the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living good life.

Each one of these passages is based on the 2000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.

You must think it. In Richard III and In Othello, Shakespeare has two different characters utter the same line. Both Iago and a nameless orphan say, I cannot think it.

In both cases, the news they are faced with, the conclusion they are being asked to accept, is simply too much.

The Shakespearean scholar, Richard Greenblatt, calls this phrase a kind of motto for those who can't wrap their mind around perfidy.

He's not being condescending for its a very common experience. Our naivete are willingness to assume the best about others, often leaves us open to betrayal.

This is why the Stoke spent so much time on this very topic. Marcus, for his part, opens meditations with some using on the reality of the types of people he's going to meet in the days to come.

But later, in meditations, he speaks about the kind of behavior you see in the boxing ring, gouging, headbutting, and low blows.

We see this all the time in the sports world as a matter of fact. NFL linemen who grease up their jerseys so they can't be grabbed, in NASCAR they'll live to say, Rubin is racing, and there's the old saying, if you're not cheating, you're not trying hard enough.

You have to anticipate this kind of behavior, Marcus says, you can't take it personally. He talks about the inevitability of bumping up against shameless people and how to handle it.

He spends time putting himself in the minds of tyrants, robbers, and perverts. Again, because these types exist and we must not be surprised or abused by them.

When Sennaka was sentenced to death by Nero, his family and friends began wailing in shock and horror. But Sennaka was calm. Who knew not Nero's cruelty he told them. We can't be surprised by this.

Indeed, it was a brave and rational response. The only shame is that Sennaka couldn't have seen this coming earlier. If he had, perhaps he would have stopped the tyrant before he hurt so many people.

The point being, this is not a philosophy for the weak or the cowardly. Stoicism is about facing the truth, about facing the unthinkable, not just as it's happening, but long before.

Pre-meditatio-malorum, which we've talked about a lot here and make it in coin form as a constant reminder, is the embodiment of that idea.

Keep all the possibilities before you, including, and especially, the bad ones. Keep your eyes open. Be aware. Think it, because you might be able to prevent it.

And if you can't, at least you'll be able to handle the reality of its existence and then respond to it accordingly.

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