There was gruffness to the Stoics. A wariness of getting too close or too attached, lest your heart be broken by fortune. But does that mean the Stoics were unfeeling?

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Most people are enslaved and controlled and directed by their ignorance. Their impulses. Their temper. Their desires and delusions.

📚 The Four Stoic Virtues: Justice, Temperance, Wisdom, Courage, are timeless keys to living your best life. The Daily Stoic is releasing a limited collector’s edition set of all four books signed and numbered, with a title page identifying these books as part of the only printing of this series. PLUS we're including one of the notecards Ryan used while writing the series. Pre-order the Limited Edition Stoic Virtues Series Today! | https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/stoic-virtues

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Looking for practical strategies to deal with difficult people? In today’s episode, communication expert Jefferson Fisher shares a 3-step process for navigating conflict, especially when kindness and empathy no longer work.

Jefferson Fisher is one of the most respected voices on communication and arguments in the world. He is a Texas board certified personal injury attorney and law firm owner of Fisher Firm. Millions of people and some of the world's leading brands come to Jefferson for advice and practical strategies to communicate more effectively. 

Follow Jefferson on Instagram and X @Jefferson_Fisher, on YouTube @JeffersonFisher and on TikTok @JustAskJefferson

📚 Grab a signed copy of Jefferson’s book, The Next Conversation: Argue Less, Talk More, at The Painted Porch! 

🎥 Watch Jefferson Fisher and Ryan's full conversation here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs6rPU1lH3Q

🎙️ Listen to Jefferson and Ryan's full conversation on Apple Podcasts or Spotify

Audio excerpted courtesy of Penguin Random House Audio from THE NEXT CONVERSATION by Jefferson Fisher, read by Jefferson Fisher. © 2025 Jefferson Fisher, ℗ 2025 Penguin Random House, LLC. All rights reserved.

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Marcus Aurelius' life teaches us how to live well. And because he lived well, his story also teaches us how to die well: with grace, with strength, with empathy, and with the comfort of knowing that he lived a good life as a good man. 

🎉 Celebrate Marcus Aurelius' Birthday this month by reading Meditations with us and the Daily Stoic community. On April 26th, 1905 years after the day of his birth, Ryan Holiday will host an invite-only LIVE Q&A to talk about all things Marcus Aurelius and Meditations.

Get 20% off with a Meditations BOOK & GUIDE bundle. Join the LIVE Meditations Q&A with Ryan Holiday by purchasing before April 26th!

Get all our Meditations offering and learn more at our official Meditations Collection at dailystoic.com/meditations today. 

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The reason we don’t get what we want is because we want it too much. We reach for it with too much force. We lack the patience, we lack the poise. In Buddhism, they speak of willful will. More often than not, that is our problem.

In her beautiful book Gift from the Sea, Anne Morrow Lindberg writes on the hunt for sea shells: “The sea does not reward those who are too anxious, too greedy, or too impatient. To dig for treasures shows not only impatience and greed, but lack of faith. Patience, patience, patience, is what the sea teaches. Patience and faith. One should lie empty, open, choiceless as a beach–waiting for a gift from the sea.”

It’s our expectations, the Stoics tell us, that get us in trouble.

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And in today's excerpt from The Daily Stoic Journal, Ryan examines the Stoic idea that expensive things cost more to us than their dollar value by reflecting on a recent situation in his life.

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Ryan presents the second of four excerpts from Josiah Osgood’s Uncommon Wrath: How Caesar and Cato’s Deadly Rivalry Destroyed the Roman Republic. Here, in Chapter Two, we witness the parallel paths that the rivals took as they grew and gained power in Rome, as well as how their journeys shaped their personalities.

You can listen to Ryan’s recent conversation with Josiah here.

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In the second of a two-part interview, Ryan speaks with Rick Rubin about his new book The Creative Act: A Way of Being, respecting everyone’s unique approach to the creative process during collaboration, his new podcast Tetragrammaton, the importance of studying art created long ago, and more.

Rick Rubin is a renowned American record producer and the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. He has produced albums for a wide range of acclaimed artists, including the Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Public Enemy, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine, and Johnny Cash. He has won nine Grammys and has been nominated for 12 more. He has been called "the most important producer of the last 20 years" by MTV and was named on Time's list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World".

You can hear part one of Ryan’s interview with Rick here. 

📰 Check out Bill Oppenheimer’s writing and Six at 6 on Sunday newsletter at billyoppenheimer.com.

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We are so busy. We think we’re supposed to be. We think that’s how we get better. We think that moving is the only way to move forward.

You might think that Marcus Aurelius could relate.

Yet when he speaks most beautifully it’s of moments of quiet and calm. "If you can cut free of impressions that cling to the mind," he said, "free of the future and the past—can make yourself, as Empedocles says, 'a sphere rejoicing in its perfect stillness.’" Have you ever had a moment like that?

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And in today's Daily Stoic excerpt reading, Ryan discusses his perspective on focusing on the internal more than the external by examining the quote from Epictetus's Discourses, “These things don’t go together. You must be a unified human being, either good or bad. You must diligently work either on your own reasoning or on things out of your control—take great care with the inside and not what’s outside, which is to say, stand with the philosopher, or else with the mob!”

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It’s hard not to look at the lives of Marcus Aurelius and Seneca and Epictetus and Cato and Zeno and not see what seems like one trauma after another. The loss of young children. Civil wars. Betrayals. Sickness. Criticism. Droughts, deforestation and powerful storms. Then again, it’s hard not to look at our lives and see the same thing. Financial crises. Political unrest. Political violence. A pandemic. Terrorist attacks. Mass shootings. Climate change.

But of course, this is not how a Stoic tries to look at things. Because it’s not a great lens.

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And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan presents part one of his Q&A session with a group of doctors in which he covers the Stoic way of motivating a team to achieve a common goal, how we can use routine to come back to ourselves, and more.

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We live in modern, cutting edge times. Each day, there are breakthroughs in neuroscience, microcomputing, medicine, and in how we make, save, and spend money. Our ability to beam information around the world, instantaneously, also means that we can get breaking news from all corners of the planet. Big data gives us the power to scrap enormous amounts of inputs and draw new insights from them. All this is wonderful and illuminating. We know things that we never thought we’d be able to know…and the person who doesn’t avail themselves of this is needlessly ignorant.

And yet…and yet.

As the great General Mattis said recently on Medal of Honor recipient Kyle Carpenter’s podcast:

My best new ideas come from very old books.

📚 If you’re ready to put down your phone and pick up a book to find those best new ideas, check out our Read to Lead: A Daily Stoic Reading Challenge.

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In the first of a two-part interview, Ryan speaks with Rick Rubin about his new book The Creative Act: A Way of Being, the importance of allowing creativity to happen rather than willing it into existence, working with the unique facets of the artist’s ego, the importance of changing up the way that you do things, the phases of the creative process, and more.

Rick Rubin is a renowned American record producer and the co-founder of Def Jam Recordings, founder of American Recordings, and former co-president of Columbia Records. He has produced albums for a wide range of acclaimed artists, including the Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, Public Enemy, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Metallica, Audioslave, Rage Against the Machine, and Johnny Cash. He has won nine Grammys and has been nominated for 12 more. He has been called "the most important producer of the last 20 years" by MTV and was named on Time's list of the "100 Most Influential People in the World".

Part two of Ryan’s interview with Rick will air on February 22nd for subscribers, and March 1st for non-subscribers.

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The Stoics believed in the concept of "amor fati," or "love of fate." This means accepting and embracing everything that happens, including the fact that we are all replaceable.

As Marcus Aurelius wrote, "All things are ephemeral – fame and the famous as well." No matter how great or important we may feel in the moment, time marches on and eventually someone else will fill our place.

But this shouldn't be seen as a negative.

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Today, Ryan presents highlights of his discussions with top performers in their fields about how practicing the Stoic virtue of discipline has shaped their lives for the better.

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While most of us will never be an emperor or a rock star, we can imagine what it would be like.

It would be so abnormal as to be dehumanizing. Indeed, this is what a lot of famous people say—that they often feel like an animal at a zoo.

The point isn’t to say that we should pity famous people or even that we should try to avoid fame. The point is to say that, when we come across a famous person who seems to have stayed normal, we should learn how they did it.

---

And in todays Daily Stoic Journal reading, Ryan discusses the power of cultivating a certain type of indifference towards the struggles that enter into our lives.

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To the Stoics, it wasn’t that we read. It’s what we read. We should seek out books that make a difference in our lives…not ones that win prizes. What matters is what we think of the books, not what other people think. What’s impressive is what we get out of them, not how they look on our shelves or that they might impress certain types of company.

Read widely. Read aggressively. But don’t be a glutton for punishment.

In October of 2022 Ryan Holiday was asked to speak at the Austin Central Library about the importance of reading books that resonate with you. In today’s episode, he shares a recording of that speech.

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Last week, Rory McIlroy won the 2025 Masters Tournament, securing his first Green Jacket and completing the career Grand Slam. Nearly five years earlier, The Golf Channel profiled Ryan in a feature on Rory McIlroy, showing how 'The Obstacle Is The Way' helped Rory reset his mindset and fuel what would become one of the most remarkable comebacks in golf history.

🎥 Watch this on The Daily Stoic YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tsegDV9aZvk

📕 Pick up a copy of the 10th Anniversary Edition of The Obstacle Is the Way by Ryan Holiday at dailystoic.com/obstacle

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Ryan speaks with William D. Cohan about his new book Power Failure: The Rise and Fall of an American Icon, the link between Marcus Aurelius and the “imperial CEO” of General Electric Jack Welch, the legacy of Thomas Edison and GE, the egos of powerful CEOs, and more.

William D. Cohan is a business writer and former investigative reporter. He is a graduate of Phillips Academy, Duke University, and Columbia University Journalism and Business schools. Prior to his career as a writer, he worked on Wall street in mergers and acquisitions banker, having spent spent six years at Lazard Frères in New York, then Merrill Lynch, and later at JP Morgan Chase. His books include House of Cards: A Tale of Hubris and Wretched Excess on Wall Street, Four Friends: Promising Lives Cut Short, and The Price of Silence: The Duke Lacrosse Scandal, the Power of the Elite, and the Corruption of Our Great Universities.

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Punctuality is a matter of self-discipline, but also respect. We must be aware of and in command of our schedule and the time we’ve allocated to different people and activities. We must also care about how our decisions affect those people.

Which is why it’s not hard to imagine Marcus Aurelius or Cato being quite diligent about when they arrived and when things started, even though they were powerful enough to insist that others wait for them.

But what about when they screwed up or lost track of time? Did they whip themselves? Berate themselves for being lazy? No, hopefully not!

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And in today's reading of The Daily Stoic, Ryan examines Epictetus's quote, "Keep in mind that it isn't the one that has it in for you and takes a swipe that harms you, but rather the harm comes from your own belief about the abuse."

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What’s the opposite of Stoicism, this austere philosophy based on toughness and resilience, virtue and service? Well, in the ancient world, it was Epicureanism–a philosophy that said that pleasure was the highest good. Could there be anything more different than Stoicism?

As it happens, the Epicureans got a bad rap in the ancient world and in today’s.

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And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan presents part three of his Q&A at the Young President's Organization West Michigan chapter in which he discusses why the Stoics are an "operating manual for modern leadership", why it can be difficult to discourage ego in leadership during a time when it is promoted so heavily in the media, and more.

📗 You can check out The Painted Porch to get your copy of Art of Happiness.

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One way to go through life is to turn away from the things that are hard. You can close your eyes and ears to what is unpleasant. You can take the easy way, forgoing difficulty whenever possible. The other way is the Stoic way—it entails not only not avoiding hardship, but actively seeking it out.

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Ryan speaks with Anthony Everitt about his book Nero: Matricide, Music, and Murder in Imperial Rome, how Rome would have been different if Nero were free to become a musician, why Nero’s overbearing mother contributed to his lack of moral compass, and more.

Anthony Everitt is a British professor, author and historian of ancient Rome. His critically acclaimed books about Roman history include Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician, Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor, The Rise of Rome: The Making of the World's Greatest Empire, and The Rise of Athens: The Story of the World's Greatest Civilization. He also publishes historical essays regularly in The Guardian and The Financial Times.

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We all have reasons we don’t like something. We think a certain comedian isn’t funny or is a hack. We think a certain author is too basic or overhyped. We think that Oscar-winning movie is total garbage. We know what’s stupid and lame, what’s low brow or trash, what’s fake and what’s real, authentic and commercial. It’s interesting how certain we are with these opinions about particular people or products. Far less often do we stop and think, “Oh maybe I’m just not the audience for that.”

---

And today Ryan talks about some of the surest ways to improve yourself and your life by listing 60 of the most valuable lessons that you can learn from the Stoics.

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It’s always been difficult to concentrate. In one of his letters, Seneca talks about trying to write while Rome resounds beneath him with cacophony. There are street sellers and protestors and a fight and blacksmiths screaming and yelling and hammering down below. Now add to those typical sounds of the outside world, the chaos of our personal world–a buzzing iPhone, an overflowing inbox and endless Zoom meetings–and you get our daily nightmare.

But if we wish to succeed, as Seneca did, we must find a way to tune this all out.

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And in today's reading from the Daily Stoic Journal, Ryan dissecting three quotes from Epictetus in order to illustrate the Stoic idea of cultivating happiness in our lives by reducing the destructive habit of wanting more.

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Today’s audiobook reading features the second excerpt from The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony de Mello. Anthony was an Indian Jesuit priest, psychotherapist, and spiritual teacher, writer, and public speaker who wrote several books on spirituality, including this collection of his last meditations on love and awareness. In today’s excerpt, Anthony discusses why awareness is a key part of creating real change in your life.

This book is published by the Center for Spiritual Exchange, and you can buy your copy at The Painted Porch.

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Ryan speaks with Sam Harris about the overlap between eastern and western philosophy, how mindfulness practices like meditation help us become better Stoics, why he is so dedicated to providing his content for free, and more.

Sam Harris is a philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and host of the Making Sense Podcast. His work touches on a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, neuroscience, meditation, psychedelics, philosophy of mind, politics, terrorism, and artificial intelligence. He has written for The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, Economist, London Times, The Boston Globe, and The Atlantic, and he has authored five five New York Times bestselling books, including The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason and Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion. 

Check out wakingup.com/dailystoic to try Sam’s hugely popular meditation app.

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Life was just one thing after another for Marcus Aurelius. The plague. The flooding. The wars. He did not meet with, “the good fortune he deserved,” one ancient historian noted, “as his whole reign was a series of troubles.”

Anyone who has had a run of bad luck knows the feeling. It’s frustrating and annoying and sometimes deeply unfair, but there is also something freeing about it. Because after a certain point, you stop fighting and start accepting.

---

In todays Daily Stoic reading, Ryan explores how we can get out of the way of our own happiness by curbing our yearning.

💪 Check out the Slay Your Stress Challenge to equip yourself with strategies, mantras and mindsets that you can fall back on to navigate the relentless ups and downs of life.

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When Marcus Aurelius addresses “you”—reminding you that your thoughts shape the quality of your mind, or advising you to choose not to be harmed so that you won’t feel harmed—he is speaking to himself. This exercise in self-improvement is so sincere and earnest, sometimes painfully so, that it unintentionally speaks directly to us, helping us with our modern problems. In today's episode, Ryan Holiday shares the profound shift these lessons had on his life since discovering Meditations at 19.

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🎉 Celebrate Marcus Aurelius' Birthday this month by reading Meditations with us and the Daily Stoic community. On April 26th, 1905 years after the day of his birth, Ryan Holiday will host an invite-only LIVE Q&A to talk about all things Marcus Aurelius and Meditations.

Get 20% off with a Meditations BOOK & GUIDE bundle. Join the LIVE Meditations Q&A with Ryan Holiday by purchasing before April 26th!

Get all our Meditations offering and learn more at our official Meditations Collection at dailystoic.com/meditations today. 

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Seneca wasn’t fond of philosophers you could recognize. Not by their fame, but by their uniform. In his time, just as it is in ours, there was a type of person who, in reading about the Diogenes types or the tough Stoic types, thought that philosophy required that they give up their worldly possessions or start dressing like a bum.

Today, these types try to signal their virtue by driving a beat up old car or by showing you how little they own. See, they say, I am practicing detachment. See, I don’t want like you want. But these appearances can be deceiving.

And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan presents his part two of the Q&A from the Daily Stoic Stoicism 101 course in which he discusses the idea of being able to practice your philosophy wherever you are, the ins and out of the Stoic passions, how to go about reading ancient texts, and more.

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Ruby Doris Smith died at age 25 of cancer. It was an unfair death, concluding a short, unfair life. For two and half decades on this earth – from 1942 to 1967 – she experienced the brutal day-to-day realities of Jim Crow segregation. Yet her tombstone laments none of this. Instead, it codifies into stone one of the most basic principles of the SNCC, the civil rights organization she had been so dedicated and active in during her short life. “IF YOU THINK FREE,” it reads, “YOU ARE FREE.”

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Ryan speaks with Professor Massimo Pigliucci about his new book The Quest for Character: What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us about Our Search for Good Leaders, what Alcibiades’s magnetism and lack of moral compass can teach us about what we look for in leaders today, the tension between being virtuous and being pragmatic, and more.

Massimo Pigliucci is Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York, the former co-host of the Rationally Speaking Podcast, the originator of Neoskepticism, and an advocate and popularizer of Stoicism. He wrote a viral piece in The New York Times called How to Be a Stoic as well as two books on Stoicism titled How to Be a Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life and A Handbook for New Stoics: How to Thrive in a World Out of Your Control a Stoic handbook. He also explores Stoic philosophy on his podcast Stoic Meditations.

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We know what we want to do–or need to do. We need to quit that job. We need to have that hard conversation. We need to be more active in our community. We need to stop smoking or start eating healthy. We need to tell our crush we like them.

But when? That’s the question. Or at least, we tell ourselves that it is a question.

---

Today, Ryan recounts one of the greatest stories in human history and talks about how Antoninus Pius taught Marcus Aurelius the most important virtue of all.

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The writers Kurt Vonnegut (Slaughterhouse Five) and Joseph Heller (Catch-22) were at a glamorous party outside New York City. Standing in the palatial second home of the billionaire host, Vonnegut began to needle his friend. He described the exchange in a poem published in the New Yorker in 2005:

I said, “Joe, how does it make you feel to know that our host only yesterday may have made more money than your novel Catch-22 has earned in its entire history?”

And Joe said, “I’ve got something he can never have.”

And I said, “What on earth could that be, Joe?”

And Joe said, “The knowledge that I’ve got enough.”

--

And today's Daily Stoic Journal reading, Ryan discusses what the Stoics teach us about keeping constant watch over the flood of perceptions that fill our minds.

🎧 Listen to Ryan's interview with Molly Bloom

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Today’s reading features an excerpt from The Way to Love: The Last Meditations of Anthony de Mello. Anthony was an Indian Jesuit priest, psychotherapist, and spiritual teacher, writer, and public speaker who wrote several books on spirituality, including this collection of his last meditations on love and awareness. In today’s excerpt, Anthony explores the origins of our wants and desires, and how they translate into our quest for love.

This book is published by the Center for Spiritual Exchange, and you can buy your copy at The Painted Porch.

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Ryan speaks with Dr. Samantha Boardman about her book Everyday Vitality: Turning Stress into Strength, how you can improve your life by changing small daily habits, why feeling stressed is not necessarily a bad thing, how to deal with catastrophizing, and more.

Samantha Boardman is a Positive Psychologist based in New York. She received a B.S. from B.A. from Harvard University, an M.D. from Cornell University Medical College, and completed a 4-year residency program in Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College. Her work focuses on the promotion of wellbeing and the creation of health using Positive Psychiatry. You can learn more about Susan, her book, her blog, and her practice at positiveprescription.com.

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In Super Bowl XLIX in 2015, Seattle Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll made a decision that will be remembered in sports history for decades. The headlines called it “the worst play call in NFL history,” the “dumbest call in Super Bowl history,” and a “terrible Super Bowl mistake.”

Carroll would of course disagree with this Monday morning quarterbacking, believing it was the right call based on the numbers and his experience. But there is no disputing that the play did not work. So the more interesting question is: What did Carroll do next? How did he respond to this brutal media onslaught?

In short, he owned it.

---

In today's reading from The Daily Stoic, Ryan discusses why anger is a limited resource, and how relying on it as a fuel source may get you somewhere in the short run, but will eventually backfire in the long run.

Check out The Daily Stoic Leadership Challenge to mirror the kind of education that produced historically great leaders like Marcus Aurelius.

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When horrible things happen to us, our instinct is always to ask why me? Why this? Why now? It’s understandable, but it’s also irrelevant and unhelpful, because those questions have no answer. At least no answer that you can do anything about or take any comfort from. Besides, life has a better question. One it is constantly asking us, one that Michael Lewis to his credit has fully embraced: what will this cause? Will it put us out of commission or give us a new mission? Will it cause good things or bad things?

And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan answers questions as part of a Stoicism virtual discussion. Topics include the best ways to teach Stoic wisdom to kids and why a formal education doesn't necessarily equate to practical intelligence.

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In her beautiful book about the Los Angeles Public Library fire, Susan Orlean captures the magic of what libraries can offer. She describes walking through the empty library in Downtown L.A., not a soul in sight, and feeling connected to all the different voices represented on the millions of pages that surround her.

Books, in this way, are wonderful friends.

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What do an A-list actor, a four-star Navy admiral, and a world-famous magician have in common? Meditations by Marcus Aurelius has profoundly shaped each of their lives—proof that a Roman emperor’s private reflections still resonate 2,000 years later.

In today’s episode, Ryan speaks with actor Patrick Dempsey, director Francis Ford Coppola, Professor Jennifer Baker, magician Derren Brown, bestselling author Donald Robertson, Admiral William McRaven, and voice actor/musician Troy Baker about their personal connections to Meditations.

🎉 Celebrate Marcus Aurelius' Birthday this month by reading Meditations with us and the Daily Stoic community. On April 26th, 1905 years after the day of his birth, Ryan Holiday will host an invite-only LIVE Q&A to talk about all things Marcus Aurelius and Meditations.

Get 20% off with a Meditations BOOK & GUIDE bundle. Join the LIVE Meditations Q&A with Ryan Holiday by purchasing before April 26th!

Get all our Meditations offering and learn more at our official Meditations Collection at dailystoic.com/meditations today

Listen to the full episodes 👇

Patrick Dempsey: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 

Francis Ford Coppola: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube

Jennifer Baker: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube

Derren Brown: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube

Donald Robertson: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube

Admiral Bill McRaven: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube 

Troy Baker: Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube

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Ryan speaks with John Hendrickson about his new book Life on Delay: Making Peace with a Stutter, how Stoicism and Ryan’s work influenced him to open up about his stuttering, how stuttering being diagnosed as a neurological disorder changed his perception of himself, how his daily struggles can be found in the lives of many other people who don’t have disabilities, and more.

John Hendrickson is an author and Senior Editor at The Atlantic where he writes stories on a wide array of political issues, including his popular piece on Joe Biden and his stutter. He previously wrote and edited for Rolling Stone, Esquire and the Denver Post. With his first book, Life on Delay, John strives to educate readers about the commonly misunderstood speech disorder known as stuttering or stammering, as well as his experiences as a lifelong stutterer. His work can be found on his website johnhendrickson.org.

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Things go wrong. We get screwed over. We make mistakes. It happens. The idea that it shouldn’t affect a Stoic? Preposterous. No amount of training, Seneca writes, takes away natural feelings. So it’s OK that you don’t like what happened. What matters is what happens next.

---

Ryan also talks about how Stoicism has improved his mental health and how it can improve yours too.

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Marcus Aurelius was a busy man. He was a smart and able and talented man. So why did he need to spend so many precious hours in his tent, writing by the lamplight, practicing philosophy in his journals? It wasn’t for our benefit. No, he never expected Meditations would see an audience. He was writing for himself, to himself, trying to get better by himself. He was journaling as a means of self-improvement as much as he was of self-expression.

In today's Daily Stoic Journal reading, Ryan discusses how we can better ourselves by choosing to reserve our opinions.

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Today, Ryan presents a reading of Epicurus’s Letter to Menoeceus in which the philosopher and father of Epicureanism lays out to his friend why he believes that living a life of pleasure based on virtuous acts is the greatest good. This greatly influential work offers insights into ethics that can still be applied to our lives thousands of years later. 

To learn more about Epicurus and his work, check out The Art of Living at The Painted Porch.

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Ryan speaks with Ian Happ about how practicing Stoic principles helps him play better baseball, the mindset of a professional athlete, how he uses discipline to overcome self-doubt, and more.

Ian Happ is a professional baseball player who plays for the Chicago Cubs. Ian made his MLB debut with the Cubs in 2017, and since then he has hit 108 home runs, driven in 308 RBIs, and accumulated a batting average of .249. In 2022, he was selected for the All-Star game for the first time, and he won a Gold Glove Award for his play in left field. In 2021, Ian invested in Jomboy Media, a digital media company that produces content focused on sports and pop culture, and on which he hosts The Compound. 

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Why did Marcus Aurelius write his Meditations? It wasn’t for an audience. It wasn’t simply to practice his Greek or his rhetorical abilities—he was already good at all those things. The book lacks an author’s note and he never seemed to have told anyone about his intentions, so we can’t know for sure.

But there are two clues that, when put together, provide an answer as good as any. Have you noticed how much of Meditations is about other people? The opening, “Debts and Lessons,” makes up nearly ten percent of the book. Almost every other page has at least one quote or one story or one mention of a story about somebody else.

---

And in todays Daily Stoic excerpt, Ryan discusses Epictesus's quote about where our anxiety comes from: "When I see an anxious person, I ask myself, 'What do they want?' For if a person wasn't wanting something outside of their own control, why would they be stricken by anxiety?"

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We think we need a lot to be happy. We think we need piles of money. And power. And fame. And to get that perfect house and to marry that perfect person. There are so many things we tell ourselves we have to have.

They are nice to have. But it’s not what we need.

---

And in today's Ask Daily Stoic, Ryan discusses the strategies he uses to identify when declining an offer is the best course of action. He also touches on the best ways to teach your kids about Stoicism, and how you can begin a fruitful journaling habit.

For an easy way to start the day with the best Stoic quotes from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and others, check out our Daily Stoic Page-a-Day Calendar.

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We think if we just make enough money, someday we won’t have to worry about it anymore. We think if we just get big enough, strong enough, we won’t have to worry about being pushed around. We think if we can just get through this or that rough patch, we can relax and not be so worried anymore.

Of course, it never works out that way.

Does that mean worry is just a part of life? Well, no – unless you choose for it to be.

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Ryan looks back on some of the best discussions of 2022 that he and his guests had about building better habits. Featuring Dr. Nate Zinsser on looking for the positive aspects of your life while maintaining objective awareness, Josh Peck on his journey getting sober, Annie Duke on the power of walking away from things that don’t align with your beliefs, Amy Morin on overcoming mentally challenging situations by gaining perspective, Paul Bloom on the importance of recognizing our own bias, and Yung Pueblo on why serving the common good is the most valuable metric to measure great work by.

To develop better habits in your own life, check out Session 2 of the New Year New You Challenge on February 1st! Enroll now to secure your spot or gift it to a friend.

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Obviously, the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The earlier you get started on something that takes time, the bigger and better the results will be. 

As Seneca once said about the days that pass us by, "They are gone never to return." And that's sad. But as the second half of that expression about trees goes, the next best time is now. Today. Now is an opportunity to start. This is what you deserve.

Today, Ryan talks to some of the top performing athletes and coaches about the keys that they use to make the most of their days, and how you can apply their insights to your own life.

Today is the last day to sign up for Session 2 of the Daily Stoic New Year New You Challenge!

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The Stoics weren’t just leaders and philosophers, they were also parents, spouses, and friends who experienced joy, who fell in love, who cherished the beauty of the world around them.

🎉 Celebrate Marcus Aurelius' Birthday this month by reading Meditations with us and the Daily Stoic community. On April 26th, 1905 years after the day of his birth, Ryan Holiday will host an invite-only LIVE Q&A to talk about all things Marcus Aurelius and Meditations.

Get 20% off with a Meditations BOOK & GUIDE bundle. Join the LIVE Meditations Q&A with Ryan Holiday by purchasing before April 26th!

Get all our Meditations offering and learn more at our official Meditations Collection at dailystoic.com/meditations today. 

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History is the same thing happening over and over again, Marcus Aurelius said. There’s nothing new under the sun.

And yet, like all things in philosophy, the opposite idea must also be held true at the same time. The Stoics would also agree with what Stanford professor Scott Sagan once said, “Things that have never happened before happen all the time.”

---

In today's Daily Stoic reading, Ryan discusses the power of Marcus's assertion that "concentrating on the task before you like a Roman" is the best way to get through the day.

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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 first paradox sees Cicero examine the idea that “virtue is the only good.”

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