The Arrow, The Archer And The “Externals”
The metaphor of the archer encapsulates the essence of Stoic action. The archer does everything he can to shoot accurately: his bow is well strung, his arrows are carefully calibrated, and he has taken full account of the prevailing wind and other variables.
Even so, the arrow may not hit the bullseye, or even the target. As soon as it leaves him, the arrow, and with it the success of his action, is no longer within the control of the archer, but subject to outside forces such as a sudden change in wind speed or direction.
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The Metaphor of the Stoic Archer: We Must Do All That We Can; And That Is All We Can Do
psychologytoday.com
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An archer can shoot as accurately as possible and still miss his or her target. But this is no reflection on the archer. This is not quite saying that we must do our best, but that our best is the most that we can do—and is therefore all we need concern ourselves with.
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