The Daily Stoic

When Ryan was asked to give a talk to the leaders of one of the most foundational companies in American history, the United States Steel Corporation, he drew inspiration from Marcus Aurelius’ examinations of fire - how it melts whatever material is thrown into it in order to create fuel and heat - to put together a speech that illustrates how the Stoic virtue of Courage can be converted into succe...

Ryan speaks with Rainn Wilson in this second of a two-part conversation about the best entry points for the average person into philosophy and spirituality, why the serenity prayer applies to everyone, how the struggles he experienced in his early acting career led to him landing the role of Dwight Schrute, why he wishes that he enjoyed his time on The Office more, his take on the state of the wri...

A couple minutes of traffic on the way to work. The tone that the person was talking to you with. The scratch in your brand new painted wall. The lost pair of AirPods–the cost of replacing them. The speed of the promised promotion, word that a colleague is making a smidge more. The culture war issue of the moment. The tenor of the media coverage for your new project…or the lack thereof. The insult...

Cato, one of the most vaunted and towering Stoics, built a reputation and a career out of his refusal to give an inch in the face of pressure. He fought to keep Rome as it was, as it always had been. He refused political compromise in every form. Cato was Cato. He could never be anything but rigid, upright, and strong. But Cato’s inflexibility did not always best serve the public good. --- And in...

Ryan speaks with Rainn Wilson about his new book Soul Boom: Why We Need a Spiritual Revolution , why the guy who played Dwight Schrute wrote a book on spirituality, how anyone can find a thread to the transcendent anywhere any time, how Stoicism is helping cure the crisis that young men are in today, what the Stoics would have said about climate change, and more.  Rainn Wilson is an actor, co...

It’s easy to nod along with a book (or even this email) when you’re reading it. Or to double-tap the like button when you see an inspiring Instagram post . But how long does this stay with you? How quickly will its message flutter away? It’s a critical problem for all of us out there who are trying to get better. Who are trying to actually live the principles of philosophy, and to rely on it in li...

Marcus Aurelius must have wondered what he did to deserve all this. First, he lost his father at age three. Then he was pulled from his first love, philosophy, and pushed into politics. When he finally became emperor, roughly 200 years of peace exploded into 19 years of border wars and civil strife. There was a plague. There were floods. He had crippling health problems. At some point, as he burie...

Marcus Aurelius never claimed to be a Stoic. Gregory Hays, one of Marcus Aurelius’s best translators (the one we worked with on our beautiful premium edition) , writes, “If he had to be identified with a particular school, [Stoicism] is surely the one he would have chosen. Yet I suspect that if asked what it was that he studied, his answer would not have been ‘Stoicism’ but simply ‘philosophy.’” -...

In today’s audiobook reading, Ryan presents an excerpt from one of the seminal texts of Stoicism, the Discourses of Epictetus, read by Michael Reid. As a series of lectures given by Epictetus that were written down by his pupil Arrian in 108 A.D., these discourses provide practical advice to think on and practice in order to move oneself closer toward the ultimate goal of living free and happy. In...

Ryan speaks with Christina Pazsitzky in the second of a two-part interview about what really matters in life, why studying history reveals how strange life is, enjoying what you have while you have it, how to navigate social media as a parent, and more. Christina Pazsitzky is a stand-up comedian, podcaster, writer, host and TV personality. Since starting her comedy career in 1997, Christina has be...

This is not another note about  memento mori . It’s about a different immutable, inescapable law of human existence that comes to us from the Stoics through Heraclitus (one of Marcus Aurelius’ favorites): Character is fate. --- And in today's excerpt from The Daily Stoic , Ryan explains why the Stoics believed it was so important to honor the past, but not to live in it. ✉️ Sign up...

In matters of law, Cato was a stickler. In matters of principle, Cato was uncompromising. His opponents found him exhausting. Even some of his friends thought he was impossible. Yet as we wrote about recently, people who bumped into him in the street were always surprised. By how nice he was. By how low key he was. There was the man who struck Cato in the baths , not aware of whom he was fighting...

Ryan speaks with Christina Pazsitzky in the first of a two-part interview about her new Netflix comedy special Mom Genes , why she believes that comedians should go to college to study philosophy, how she balances her work and home life, why ego is a tool for survival in a comedy career, what the Stoics would have to say about cancel culture, and more. Christina Pazsitzky is a stand-up comedian, p...

Seneca, Cato, and Marcus Aurelius operated in the real world. They navigated within and around the halls of power. They had people working above and below them, and they needed to figure out how to motivate, influence, understand, and accommodate those people. And while virtue kept them from being too Machavailian, they had to figure out how to affect change and get things done inside a world that...

You may well have said it yesterday, or overheard someone else saying it, “Oh, I’ll do it in the morning…I’ll do it after I wake up…I’ll get to it later…I just need to do this other thing first.” It’s one of the oldest, most insidious lies in the world. Yet it’s so common that we don’t even notice it. We don’t even realize that it is a vicious untruth that deprives us and the world of potential, o...

An explorer at Jamestown in the 17th century. A London gentleman during the Stuart Period. An unidentified person with the initials T.S. who lived during the Renaissance. Another with the initials E.R. who lived sometime during the 16th century. We hardly know anything about them. They almost certainly didn’t know each other. But they have two things in common. First, they are dead. Second, while...

Known as the “Second Founder of Stoicism,” Chrysippus was a philosophical giant as revered as he was controversial. Today, Ryan reads from his book Lives of the Stoics: The Art of Living from Zeno to Marcus Aurelius to share the winding and often confounding story of one of the most important figures of Stoicism, and to explain why he died laughing. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://da...

Ryan speaks with Paul Kix about his new book You Have to Be Prepared to Die Before You Can Begin to Live: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America , how Ryan helped him shape his writing career after being laid off by ESPN, the painful realities of the Jim Crow south and 1963 Birmingham, and more. Paul Kix is an author, journalist, and podcaster whose wide-ranging work examines sports, politic...

In August of 1967, Lieutenant Dave Carey was shot out of his A-4 Skyhawk over Vietnam. Soon enough, he found himself a prisoner in Hanoi, where he would subsequently be beaten, tortured and placed into solitary confinement. For six years, he languished there, kept going only by the comrades around him and an occasional pick me up from the Stoics. As Carey explained on an incredible episode of the...

Life is unpredictable. Events are uncertain. What can go wrong will. Nice guys sometimes finish last, bad things happen to good people. So much is outside our control. These realities are all well-known to a Stoic. As Seneca said, fortune behaves as she pleases. So why did they try then? Why did they work hard on stuff when it might not work out? Why did they invest and sacrifice? --- And in today...

We all want more peace, right? More stillness. The quiet confidence that comes from being on the right path,  as Seneca described it , and not being distracted by all those which crisscross ours. Well, how do you get that? It’s simple,  Marcus Aurelius wrote .  Stop caring what other people think. Stop caring what they do. Stop caring what they say. ✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic em...

Ryan speaks with Greg Harden about how Stoicism influenced his new book Stay Sane in an Insane World: How to Control the Controllables and Thrive , the techniques that he has used to coach so many sports greats to the highest levels of success, the difference between confidence and ego, why Tom Brady likes The Obstacle Is The Way , and more. Greg Harden is a life coach, motivational speaker and ex...

Those shoes you’re wearing were likely made in a sweatshop by a child in horrendous labor conditions. That luxury handbag is a few dollars worth of leather and a fortune in deceptive advertising and branding. Those two politicians with radically different agendas are ladder-climbing friends behind the scenes, with the same corporate donors. Those big tough rappers whose beef you’re following are t...

It is not enough, of course, to simply tune out the noise around you. One can turn off social media. One can cultivate the quiet country life, as the Stoics did on occasion. One can ignore what is inessential, pay no attention to what makes no difference. And still there is noise. To get to ataraxia , or a place of stillness and peace , the Stoics knew that controlling for externals was not enough...

In anticipation of their upcoming live discussion series, Ryan and Robert sat down to discuss where their ideas and interests converge. This casual conversation is a small offering of the type of discourse that they will be presenting in their discussion series: Strategy And Philosophy For Turbulent Times in Los Angeles on September 19 , and Seattle on September 21 . There are a limited number of...