The Daily Stoic

It’s one of the most haunting paintings you’ll ever see. More than 11 feet wide and 8 feet tall, painted in rich but dark oils, Eugene Delacroix (a student of the Stoics) captures Marcus Aurelius at the end of his life. A plague has devastated Rome. His troubled son stands in the wings, unlikely to rule well. Marcus has had a hard life, filled with adversity, not meeting, as one historian noted, “...

You’d think that the more powerful you are, the more freedom you’d have. The more money and success you have, the more you can do. You’d think that being a millionaire or being a celebrity or being the CEO would finally unshackle you from all the obnoxious and annoying constraints of being a ‘regular’ person… How wrong this is. How wrong this has always been. It was Eisenhower who said that freedo...

Ryan talks to personal finance advisor, entrepreneur, author, and host of the I Will Teach You To Be Rich podcast , Ramit Sethi about helping couples grow stronger through finances, the importance of a personal definition of “being rich,” healthy spending habits, and more. Ramit Sethi is the NY Times best-selling author of I Will Teach You To Be Rich , founder of GrowthLab.com, and owner and co-fo...

Years before he became president, Harry Truman owned a haberdashery that doubled as a local hang-out. A kid named Albert Ridge would often head there after his shift at the neighborhood grocery store. For the rest of his life, Ridge would tell the story of the time Truman gave him a list of ten books to read. It included books like Plutarch's Lives , Caesar's Commentaries , and Benjamin Franklin's...

George Washington’s favorite saying was “many mickles make a muckle.” It was an old Scottish proverb that illustrates a truth we all know: things add up. Even little ones. Even at the pace of one per day. Our perennial Page-A-Day Calendar is designed to help you grow one day at a time. It’s one page with one Stoic quote for every day—perfect for your desk, your nightstand, your kitchen counter, or...

Ryan talks to clinical psychologist, couples therapist, and author Dr. Sue Johnson about how Stoicism and Emotionally Focused Therapy complement and enrich each other, what psychology can teach us about the nature of human relationships, her best-selling book (and a game-changer for Ryan) Hold Me Tight , and more. With a B.A. in English Literature from the University of Hull and an Ed. D. in Couns...

In several of Seneca’s letters he speaks about the power of bloodletting as a medical practice. In one, he actually remarks—with some superiority—how earlier generations had not yet discovered bloodletting and suffered for it. Marcus Aurelius hints at some other medical practices. He speaks of the treatment for ophthalmia—inflammation of the eye—and how doctors treated it with a bit of egg yolk. W...

We get all sorts of messages. From the world. From social media. From other people. From our bodies. The question–the great difficulty of life–is gathering, deciphering and deciding which of these messages to listen to and act on, and which to ignore. One of the best translators of the Stoics, Robin Waterfield (you  must  read  his annotated edition of  Meditations ), renders M...

Oh, you’ve read the works of Heidegger? You finished all of Infinite Jest ? You made it through all of Jordan Peterson’s Maps of Meaning , all of Faulkner’s lesser works, Finnegan’s Wake and Ulysses ? You must be pretty proud of yourself. ✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail 🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medal...

Marcus Aurelius did not come out of the womb a leader. Nor was he an emperor ‘by blood.’ In fact, when first told he was to be king, he wept—thinking of all the bad and failed kings of history. So how did he get from there to philosopher king? Book 1 of Meditations shows us. The first ten percent of the book—Debts and Lessons—thanks people who groomed him into one of history’s greatest leaders. He...

Ryan talks to the poet Yung Pueblo about his new book Lighter: Let Go of the Past, Connect with the Present, and Expand the Future , why servicing the common good is the most valuable metric to measure great work by, the common threads that tie differing philosophies together, and more. Diego Perez is a meditator and New York Times bestselling author who is widely known on Instagram and various so...

Years before he became president, Harry Truman owned a haberdashery that doubled as a local hang-out. A kid named Albert Ridge would often head there after his shift at the neighborhood grocery store. For the rest of his life, Ridge would tell the story of the time Truman gave him a list of ten books to read. It included books like Plutarch's Lives , Caesar's Commentaries , and Benjamin Franklin's...

The rockstar Warren Zevon had been on the top of the Billboard charts. He’d been on the cover of Rolling Stone. He’d been admired by other great artists and musicians like Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, and Tom Petty. The heights of fame were enjoyable, but it took a jarring diagnosis of terminal lung cancer to give Zevon the kind of perspective that only a *memento mori* moment can give. And when...

Ryan talks to Sophia Amoruso about how she has navigated the highs and lows of being a successful business woman, how to become great without becoming a monster, the importance of staying grounded while reaching great heights, and more. Sophia Christina Amoruso is an American businesswoman. Amoruso was born in San Diego, California, and moved to Sacramento, California, after High school, soon afte...

According to the great Jesuit Monk Anthony DeMello, there are three intellectual feats that we struggle with on a regular basis, that are harder than just about any physical activity on the planet. Just three. They are, he said, in this order: Returning love for hate. Including the excluded. Admitting you are wrong. ✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Sto...

The single most important practice in Stoic philosophy is differentiating between what we have control over and what we don’t. Epictetus said, “The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to u...

The Stoics were all about routine and repetition. They talked about fueling the habit bonfire . They would have agreed with Aristotle: we are what we repeatedly do. We become what we repeatedly study and focus on. 📕 We created a premium leather-bound edition of  Meditations  - To learn more and to pick up your own copy of this beautiful new edition of  Meditations,  visit&nbsp...

Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor, born nearly two millennia ago (121 – 180). Marcus became the Emperor of the Roman Empire in 161 and ruled for nearly two decades until his death in 180. It is important to realize the gravity of that position and the magnitude of power that Marcus possessed. He held one of—if not the most—powerful positions in the world at the time. If he chose to, nothing woul...

This episode is a compilation of some of the best Stoic wisdom from the Daily Stoic Podcast. Ryan talks to Kate Courtney about the important distinction between optimization vs. maximization, Karen Duffy about how Stoicism can help guide you through pain, Meg Mason about the vitality of being tolerant and forgiving of others, Susan Cain how to take heartbreak and mold something great out of it. Ka...

In the kitchen at Per Se, one of the best restaurants in the world, there is a sign. All it says is: A Sense of Urgency. That’s what a great chef, a great service staff, a great organization has. A great person needs it too. ✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail 📕 We created a premium leather-bound edition o...

Ryan talks to Thomas Ricks about his new book Waging a Good War: A Military History of the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1968 , the philosophical methods that guided the leaders in the civil rights movement, the grit that it took to fight for the promise made in the Declaration of Indepence, and more. Thomas Ricks is an American journalist and author who has won the Pulitzer Prize for National Repor...

Perhaps you remember reading The Odyssey in high school or college (or possibly you picked up Emily Wilson’s fabulous new translation at the Painted Porch ). Even if you haven’t, you’re probably familiar with the cyclops scene. Odysseus and his men find themselves trapped in a cave with Polyphemus, the deranged, man-eating, sheep herding, one-eyed beast. Odysseus hatches an ingenious escape plan:...

Marcus Aurelius was smart. He was rich and powerful. He won wars and conquered territories. But that doesn’t explain why we are still talking about his Meditations so many thousands of years later. As Brand Blandshard would observe of Marcus’s writings 1984, "Few care now about the marches and countermarches of the Roman commanders. What the centuries have clung to is a notebook of thoughts by a m...

Ghosts are, of course, a silly thing to believe in ( Athenodorus’ ghost story notwithstanding ). Yet the Stoics would not have scoffed at Eleanor Roosevelt’s feeling of not being alone in the Lincoln bedroom. As the New York Times would write many years ago in an editorial about her claim, “The White House is built of memories…It will remain a haunted house as long as it stands, but only in the be...