Virtue as the Highest Good
Virtue alone is the supreme good; all else is indifferent. Living virtuously is the only true path to eudaimonia.
The Stoics held that virtue (arete) is the only genuine good. Wealth, health, reputation, and pleasure are 'preferred indifferents' — they may be pursued, but they are not necessary for a flourishing life. Only the virtuous use of reason, which is entirely within our control, constitutes true goodness.
Virtue is the only true good.
This foundational claim separates Stoicism from Epicureanism and Aristotelian ethics, making virtue self-sufficient for happiness.
Meditations
Written about in
- What Stoicism says about envy and comparison
If virtue is the only genuine good, nothing your rival has can be subtracted from your account, because the only account is your own use of reason. This is the load-bearing claim of the whole answer; envy collapses only if you actually believe it.