The Pietas Papers

Welcome to the blog. Below you’ll find the latest short reflections on duty, contentment, and virtue.

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  Training the Soul

  Nov 21, 2025 · By Andrew Bibb · pietas, community, progress, Xenophon

  I notice that as those who do not train the body cannot perform the functions proper to the body, so those who do not train the soul cannot perform...

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  Polishing the Mind

  Nov 20, 2025 · By Andrew Bibb · humility, progress, James McCosh, C. S. Lewis

  His thinking…is often exclusive and angular, in consequence of its not being rubbed and polished and adjusted by being placed alongside of the...

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  Perfect vs. Contingent Duties

  Nov 19, 2025 · By Andrew Bibb · duty, liberty, Cicero

  Duty may be said to be either contingent or perfect…what is right in itself is perfect duty; that for the doing of which a satisfactory reason can be...

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  On Inner Peace

  Nov 18, 2025 · By Andrew Bibb · inner peace, conscience, moral law, Joseph Cook

  I wish peace for myself as well as for others, and, in the search for it, must demand that self-evident truth be not ignored. When I, in company with...

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  On True Contentment

  Nov 17, 2025 · By Andrew Bibb · contentment, purpose, John Witherspoon

  …do as much as you can to deserve praise, and yet avoid as much as possible the hearing of it. - John Witherspoon I used to think of contentment as...

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  The Middle Way of Pietas

  Nov 16, 2025 · By Andrew Bibb · pietas, stoicism, progress

  What then is to be done? To make the best of what is in our power, and take the rest as it occurs. And how does it occur? As it pleases God… -...

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  Introducing the Pietas Papers

  Nov 14, 2025 · By Andrew Bibb · pietas, introduction

  It’s been several years since I launched my first online project called Engaged Awareness. At the time, I was an Army civil affairs officer, and my...

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