Great topic.

From the Stoic texts, it’s all about Cato for me. Flawed and sometimes wrong, he is always doing what he thinks is right. He does his homework, and yet doesn’t overthink. Plutarch’s Life of Cato is as good as another Stoic text for me.

Outside that, my high school Chemistry teacher has always been a major influence. He seems to have had a tough early life, then ultimately joined the ATF and lived in Panama for a long time, then came to the middle of nowhere, US to teach Chemistry. He was an extremely tough teacher, but would stop class to explain something to a student or stay after as long as it took if a student asked (which I often did). I was prepared to stop applying for college after two failed attempts at it, but he helped me apply to where I wound up going, and donated (somewhat secretly) many instruments to our school.

For me a lot of my “Stoic before I knew what Stoicism was” ideas were derived from that guy and the simultaneous work ethic and tough kindness he showed.