The Daily Stoic

Both Thomas Jefferson and George Washington profited from slavery, but both knew it was wrong. Yet at the end of their lives, it was Washington who freed his slaves, not Jefferson, who had written far more eloquently about human equality as well as the eternal shame of slavery.Why was that?---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions in a virtual Q&A about how he gets interested in and inspired by new ideas, why the classics endure, and balancing the needs of the team with those of the individual, and more.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including Discipline is Destiny.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You don’t get a joke, so you say it’s not funny. You don’t like something, so you believe it sucks. You’re white, so you’ve always taken it for granted that the color ‘nude’ roughly matches your skin. You drive on the right side of the road, so it’s weird when you go somewhere and people drive on the left side. You love your job, so you have no patience for people complaining about theirs. You’ve been successful, so you can’t understand why other people struggle.We assume…and we make asses of ourselves.Our personal experiences make up a tiny percentage of the world, but a huge percentage of how we perceive the world.🎧 Check out Ryan's interview with Champion Distance Runner Lauren Fleshman.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Edith Hall about why she wants to open up Aristotle’s works to the world at large, how Aristotle defined what a human being is and how one can be happy, the importance of doing what you’re good at and enjoying what you’re doing so long as it’s good for the social good, and more.Edith Hall, FBA is a British scholar and professor of classics at Durham University, specializing in ancient Greek literature and cultural history, and professor in the Department of Classics and Centre for Hellenic Studies at King's College, London, as well as a Fellow of the British Academy. Her research and writings have been influential in three distinct areas: (1) the understanding of the performance of literature in the ancient theater and its role in society, (2) the representation of ethnicity; (3) the uses of Classical culture in European education, identity, and political theory. She has written and been a part of many publications about Greek classics, including Aristotle's Way: How Ancient Wisdom Can Change Your Life (2018), Sophocles and the Greek Tragic Tradition (2009), and Inventing the Barbarian: Greek Self-Definition through Tragedy (1989). ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A successful day for a Stoic is simple. It’s not about making more money. Or getting more famous, or dazzling more people with your accomplishments. It’s whether or not you got better.Specifically, it’s whether you get better at life—more prepared for the troubles, for the temptations, for the opportunities that lay ahead. As Seneca wrote to Lucilius, the prescription for this philosophy is simple:“Each day acquire something that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes, as well and after you have run over many thoughts, select one to be thoroughly digested that day.”---And today, Ryan presents eight Stoic inspired strategies that can help you keep a cool head.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In retrospect, so many of the decisions the Stoics made are baffling. Marcus Aurelius and his son Commodus. Seneca and Nero. Their attitude toward women, toward slavery, toward violence, toward what society was supposed to look like. Even more recently, what of Stockdale and the complicated nature of the war in Vietnam.Didn’t they know? Didn’t they know better?Sometimes…but not always.---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal reading, Ryan discusses the importance of avoiding the need for external validation, especially in the age of social media.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including Discipline is Destiny.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today, Ryan presents a live talk that he gave in September 2022 to a group of business leaders about the art and business of modern marketing. He covers why competition is for losers, how to create clarity around what you are making and who you are making it for, the importance of doing work that addresses actual problems, and more.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Lori Gottlieb about the profound effect that stories have on our lives, why we are all unreliable narrators, how we can make real steps toward positive change by practicing self-compassion, understanding other peoples’ experiences by listening to their stories, and more.Lorr Gottlieb is a physiotherapist, writer, speaker, and podcast host whose work focuses on the role that stories and storytelling take in shaping our mental landscape. She obtained an undergraduate degree at Stanford University and a Masters of Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University, and she is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She published the New York Times bestseller, Maybe You Should Talk to Someone in 2019, which she repurposed into a journal version in 2022 titled Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: The Journal. She also writes the weekly “Dear Therapist” advice column for The Atlantic and is the co-host of the iHeart Radio podcast "Dear Therapists." Her TED Talk was one of the top most-watched talks of 2019. Her work can be found on her website lorigottlieb.com.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

In the year 165 AD, a plague began to break out in Rome. Brought back from the far eastern corners of the empire, the virus spread from person to person, house to house, until nearly all of Rome was overwhelmed.The doctors could not keep up. Neither could the morticians or the grave diggers. Rome’s economy was devastated. Millions died, millions fled. And the plague simply dragged on, year after year, without serious respite for over a decade.As we reflect now on this third anniversary of our own plague, it’s worth evaluating what you may or may not have been infected with. Marcus broke into tears whenever the victims of the pestilence were mentioned–he knew how much had been lost, literally and figuratively. It’s important, whatever the future holds, that we do not needlessly add ourselves to that casualty list.---And in today's Daily Stoic reading, Ryan ruminates on the importance of balancing the philosophy of study with applying it to real life experiences. After all, philosophy is what you do, not something you say.✉️  Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including the Premium Leather Edition of Meditations.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We get so used to having our way. We live in a time when the skies have been conquered. When so many diseases have been vanquished. When technology allows us to do and have things that were inconceivable even just a generation ago.Consequently the eternal battle for our attention, between the things we control and the things we don’t, becomes even harder for us to wage. The lessons and warnings the Stoics have issued to us across the centuries about this perpetual internal fight, begin to feel like they belong to a different age, like they are meant for people who are fundamentally different from us.This is how skewed our collective sense of self has become.---And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions about how Marcus Aurelius dealt with Commodus's derangement, why the Stoics could be so socially "advanced" in some areas and so "behind" in others, how we can best line up the time when we are the most effective with the work that most needs to be done, and more.✉️  Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Wes Larson about how and why he dedicated his life to working with bears, the feeling of being alive that he gets when working up close with bears in the wild, what our inherent fear and fascination with dangerous forces can teach us about our relationship to nature, how we can better live with animals rather than dominating them, and more.Wes Larson is a wildlife biologist and television presenter who has been studying and working with polar, black and grizzly bears for over a decade. During that time, he graduated with a masters degree from BYU where he studied wildlife conservation with an emphasis on both polar and black bear human conflict mitigation. His work has been featured by National Geographic, CNN and Al Jazeera, and he has published many scientific papers and presented research findings in various wildlife meetings around the world, including at the International Bear Association meetings in Ljubljana Slovenia. Wes is also the co-host of the Tooth and Claw Podcast, and his work can be followed on Instagram at @grizkid and @toothandclaspodcast.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The busier we get, the more we work, even the more that we learn and read, the further we tend to drift from our center. We get in a rhythm. We’re making money, being creative, we’re stimulated and busy. It seems like everything is going well. But if we’re not careful, those other things grow and grow until they take over completely; and what once felt like a rhythm now feels like a rut.It’s true for us now just as it was true for Marcus Aurelius. He had an awful lot to keep him busy, to distract him, to push him further and further, which in turn afforded him less and less time for that which really mattered to him: philosophy. We get a good sense of how he thought about his priorities with this analogy in Book 6 of Meditations:“If you had a stepmother and a real mother, you would pay your respects to your step mother, yes…but it’s your real mother you’d go home to.The court…and philosophy: Keep returning to it, to rest in its embrace. It’s all that makes the court — and you — endurable.”✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We like to think that someday, things will be slower, more peaceful. That we’ll get a break. That after the holidays, after this busy season, then we’ll be able to get serious–about that thing we needed to think about, about that exercise we wanted to start doing, about taking that vacation. Once I get away from the city, from the office, then I can relax, we tell ourselves.It’s never going to happen. You are fooling yourself. You are fooling yourself as people have always fooled themselves.---Today, Ryan also shares six Stoic lessons that you can learn and apply to feel more tranquil, free, and at peace. No matter who you are or where you’re from.✉️  Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

People probably thought Marcus Aurelius was strange. The time he spent alone in his room. The long walks he took by himself. We know they thought it was strange that he was seen reading and writing in the Colosseum, ignoring the carnage of the games below.“The world today does not understand, in either man or woman,” Anne Morrow Lindbergh writes in Gift from the Sea, “the need to be alone.” Perhaps we ourselves don’t understand it. We don’t quite see the point. Or as much as we enjoy it, we don’t see it as much of a priority. As we discussed over at Daily Dad in an email recently, parents will manage to make time for so many things…but quiet time by or for themselves is written off as an impossible indulgence.---And in today's Daily Stoic Journal reading, Ryan examines the importance of cultivating a safe and free place to retreat to inside of your own mind.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including the Stillness Key.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan presents the first of six readings of Cicero's Stoic Paradoxes. Cicero was considered Rome’s greatest politician, and he has survived as one of history’s most enduring chroniclers of Stoic philosophy and the Stoics themselves. As Ryan explains in Lives of the Stoics, these paradoxes are designed to question commonly held beliefs in order to promote reflection and discussion. In that spirit, the paradox that Cicero examines today, the fourth paradox, explores the idea that “every fool is an exile and the wise person cannot be harmed.”✉️  Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Zach Braff about his new Stoicism-inspired movie A Good Person, how the idea of Amor fati has helped him translate recent personal trauma into art, what he has learned about supporting people who need help in the wake of a friend’s tragedy, and more.Zach Braff is an actor, voice actor, director, screenwriter, and entrepreneur. He is most known for his starring role on the TV comedy Scrubs (2001-2010), for which he was nominated for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series as well as for three Golden Globe Awards, and in his directorial debut Garden State (2004), which he also wrote and starred in. Zach has also directed a second feature film (Wish I Was Here in 2014) and the hit Apple TV show Ted Lasso (2021) for which he was nominated for a Directors Guild of America Award. His new movie A Good Person is scheduled for release on March 24, 2023.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Meditations, you could say, is Marcus Aurelius exploring himself. That’s literally what the title means–the book isn’t for you and I, it’s “things to one’s self,” to himself. He’s exploring his fears, his desires, his flaws, his virtues.That’s the journey that philosophy took Marcus on. Since he was a young man until right before his death, he was exploring himself, trying to understand himself and his nature better.But what about you? How well do you know ‘the backroads of the self,’ as Marcus calls them in Book 4.---And in today's Daily Stoic excerpt reading, Ryan explores the idea that what you buy, consume, and wear is not what defines who you are. It's ours habits, choices, and actions that do.✉️  Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including the Leather Cover Edition of the Daily Stoic Journal.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

One of the criticisms of the Stoics is that they left certain things unaddressed. Nowhere in Seneca’s writings, for instance, does he directly address Nero or criticize him by name. Even after he left Nero’s service, as the man spiraled out of control, Seneca stuck with the code that General Mattis would stick with centuries later–keeping their opinions about the administration they once served to themselves. Marcus Aurelius, most scholars deduce, was not a fan of Seneca’s actions while serving Nero–yet deduction is all we’re able to do, because nowhere does Marcus criticize Seneca. All we’re left with is a conspicuous absence in Meditations.---And in today's Ask DS, Ryan presents part two of his Q&A sessions with a team of doctors about his morning routine, how the study of history can be both grounding and elevating, his feelings about modern life and technology, and more.✉️  Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Today marks the anniversary of the death of one of humanity’s greatest specimens. On March 17th, 180, in what is now modern day Vienna, Emperor Marcus Aurelius breathed his last breath and died. We don’t know exactly what his last words were. Cassius Dio claims that Marcus spoke his last sentence to his guard, saying to him, “Go to the rising sun, for I am setting.” Given the incredible legacy of the man, these words ring somewhat insufficiently.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more, including the Premium Leather Edition of the Gregory Hays translation of Meditations.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Ryan speaks with Steve Scott about his book Hey, Tiger―You Need to Move Your Mark Back: 9 Simple Words that Changed the Game of Golf Forever, why having integrity is such a crucial part of being a good athlete and human being, the cautionary tale of Tiger Woods, and more.Steve Scott is an American former professional Golfer and the current PGA Head Golf Professional of The Outpost Club and Founder of the Silver Club Golfing Society. The defining moment of his career came during his competition against Tiger Woods in the 1996 Amateur Golf Championships. Scott found himself a surprising 5‐up after the first 18, but on the 35th hole Tiger squared the grueling match with an improbable 40‐foot birdie putt. With the result coming down to the last hole, the difference in the outcome actually came earlier, when Scott reminded Woods to move his mark back to its rightful place on the 34th hole. Had Scott not done the morally correct thing, Tiger would have been penalized and, in turn, not gone on to have his legendary career. Since retiring from playing golf, Steve has become a golf teacher, instructor, speaker, and broadcaster. His work can be found at his website stevescottpga.com, and on instagram @sscottpga.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

There’s a lot of things to try to do in your life. You should feel the ecstasy of falling in love. You should try to catch the sunrise on one coast, and the sunset on another on the same day. You should feel the pride of *mastery* in your chosen line. You should experience the joy of raising children. The thrill of victory. The agony of defeat.Plenty of people who were not Stoics have chased these accomplishments and known them. It’s part of what makes life livable, fun, and wonderful. But meaningful? No, the meaning has to come from something more, something deeper.---And Ryan presents some of his favorite Stoic quotes read from the Daily Stoic Page-A-Day Desk Calendar.📗 Check out Tyler Cowan's Average is Over.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.