Lychnos: Stoic Journal

One passage a day, and a few minutes to think about it.

Lychnos brings you Seneca, Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus each morning, with the original Greek or Latin a tap away. In the evening, it gives you a quiet place to write or record what the day taught you.

In the morning, the reading of the day • A title for the day and the whole passage the line comes from, with the line highlighted • The Æ button swaps the translation for the original Greek or Latin, from the critical editions • A short reflection on the reading ties the text to work, money, relationships or health • Stoic terms in the text open an explanation with the original word and its transliteration • A morning notification brings the line of the day

In the evening, your reflection • A question drawn from the reading and Seneca's three evening questions: what did I do well today, where did I go wrong, what can I do better tomorrow • Write or speak out loud, and everything stays encrypted on your device • Reply straight from the evening notification, without opening the app

The path of the year 366 days in 12 themes, one a month, in a deliberate order: time, what is up to you, judgments, the passions, adversity, work, other people, desire and money, body and rest, practice, character and nature.

Also in Lychnos • Archive and calendar with the days you read, your saved lines and your reflections • On this day, a year ago: what you wrote on the same date • Widgets with the line of the day and your last seven days • Any line as an image for the feed or stories • Your journal exported as PDF or Markdown • Light and dark themes

The translations Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus appear in George Long's translation and Seneca's essays in Aubrey Stewart's, both in the public domain, and Seneca's letters in our own translation from the Latin. The original is always a tap away, so you can compare.

Private by design • No account and no sign-up • No servers of our own: your journal stays on your device, encrypted • No ads, no analytics and no tracking • Your data only leaves the device when you turn on sync and backup, export or share

The app does not use AI Lychnos does not write, summarize or answer your reflections. The thinking is yours.

Free to start, one purchase to keep everything For the first 7 days, everything is unlocked, with no charge and no subscription. After that, the free version keeps the line of the day and the whole passage, every day since you installed the app, the widgets, the morning and evening notifications and 3 written reflections a week, with no expiry.

Lychnos Complete is a one-time purchase, with no subscription: • All 366 days, past or future • Unlimited written and spoken reflections • Choose when the line arrives and when to reflect • On this day, a year ago, and export as PDF or Markdown • Encrypted sync and backup in your own iCloud

Everything you have written or recorded stays visible and editable, with or without Complete.

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