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The Daily Stoic [Book]

    The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday [Book]
    By: Ryan Holiday

    Book Overview: Why have history’s greatest minds—from George Washington to Frederick the Great to Ralph Waldo Emerson, along with today’s top performers from Super Bowl-winning football coaches to CEOs and celebrities—embraced the wisdom of the ancient Stoics? Because they realize that the most valuable wisdom is timeless and that philosophy is for living a better life, not a classroom exercise.

    The Daily Stoic offers 366 days of Stoic insights and exercises, featuring all-new translations from the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the playwright Seneca, or slave-turned-philosopher Epictetus, as well as lesser-known luminaries like Zeno, Cleanthes, and Musonius Rufus. Every day of the year you’ll find one of their pithy, powerful quotations, as well as historical anecdotes, provocative commentary, and a helpful glossary of Greek terms.

    By following these teachings over the course of a year (and, indeed, for years to come) you’ll find the serenity, self-knowledge, and resilience you need to live well.

    Post(s) Inspired by this Book:

    26 Seneca Quotes from The Daily Stoic on Vices, Virtues, and Fulfillment

    192 Quotes ➜
    Buy Now ➜

      “Stop wandering about! You aren’t likely to read your own notebooks, or ancient histories, or the anthologies you’ve collected to enjoy in your old age. Get busy with life’s purpose, toss aside empty hopes, get active in your own rescue—if you care for yourself at all—and do it while you can.”

      Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, The Daily Stoic (Page 387)

        “Everything lasts for a day, the one who remembers and the remembered.”

        Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 384)

          “It’s a disgrace in this life when the soul surrenders first while the body refuses to.”

          Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 383)

            “How rotten and fraudulent when people say they intend to ‘give it to you straight.’ What are you up to, dear friend? It shouldn’t need your announcement, but be readily seen as if written on your forehead, heard in the ring of your voice, a flash in your eyes—just as the beloved sees it all in the lover’s glance. In short, the straightforward and good person should be like a smelly goat—you know when they are in the room with you.”

            Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 304)

              “The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing, because an artful life requires being prepared to meet and withstand sudden and unexpected attacks.”

              Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 282)

                “Try praying differently, and see what happens: Instead of asking for ‘a way to sleep with her,’ try asking for ‘a way to stop desiring to sleep with her.’ Instead of ‘a way to get rid of him,’ try asking for ‘a way to not crave his demise.’ Instead of ‘a way to not lose my child,’ try asking for ‘a way to lose my fear of it.'”

                Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 276)

                  “It is essential for you to remember that the attention you give to any action should be in due proportion to its worth, for then you won’t tire and give up, if you aren’t busying yourself with lesser things beyond what should be allowed.”

                  Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 251)

                    “When you’ve done well and another has benefited by it, why like a fool do you look for a third thing on top—credit for the good deed or a favor in return?”

                    Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 212)

                      “One person, on doing well by others, immediately accounts the expected favor in return. Another is not so quick, but still considers the person a debtor and knows the favor. A third kind of person acts as if no conscious of the deed, rather like a vine producing a cluster of grapes without making further demands, like a horse after its race, or a dog after its walk, or a bee after making its honey. Such a person, having done a good deed, won’t go shouting from rooftops but simply moves on to the next deed just like the vine produces another bunch of grapes in the right season.”

                      Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 210)

                        “In your actions, don’t procrastinate. In your conversations, don’t confuse. In your thoughts, don’t wander. In your soul, don’t be passive or aggressive. In your life, don’t be all about business.”

                        Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 209)

                          “On those mornings you struggle with getting up, keep this thought in mind—I am awakening to the work of a human being. Why then am I annoyed that I am going to do what I’m made for, the very things for which I was put into this world? Or was I made for this, to snuggle under the covers and keep warm? It’s so pleasurable. Were you then made for pleasure? In short, to be coddled or to exert yourself?”

                          Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 203)

                            “While it’s true that someone can impede our actions, they can’t impede our intentions and our attitudes, which have the power of being conditional and adaptable. For the mind adapts and converts any obstacle to its action into a means of achieving it. That which is an impediment to action is turned to advance action. The obstacle on the path becomes the way.”

                            Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, The Daily Stoic (Page 195)

                              “If you find something very difficult to achieve yourself, don’t imagine it impossible—for anything possible and proper for another person can be achieved as easily by you.”

                              Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 176)

                                “Don’t set your mind on things you don’t possess as if they were yours, but count the blessings you actually possess and think how much you would desire them if they weren’t already yours. But watch yourself, that you don’t value these things to the point of being troubled if you should lose them.”

                                Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, The Daily Stoic (Page 149)

                                  “Kindness is invincible but only when it’s sincere, with no hypocrisy or faking. For what can even the most malicious person do if you keep showing kindness and, if given the chance, you gently point out where they went wrong—right as they are trying to harm you?”

                                  Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 146)

                                    “When your sparring partner scratches or head-butts you, you don’t then make a show of it, or protest, or view him with suspicion or as plotting against you. And yet you keep an eye on him, not as an enemy or with suspicion, but with a healthy avoidance. You should act this way with all things in life. We should give a pass to many things with our fellow trainees. For, as I’ve said, it’s possible to avoid without suspicion or hate.”

                                    Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 128)

                                      “If anyone can prove and show to me that I think and act in error, I will gladly change it—for I seek the truth, by which no one has ever been harmed. The one who is harmed is the one who abides in deceit and ignorance.”

                                      Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 127)

                                        “Don’t overdress your thought in fine language.”

                                        Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, via The Daily Stoic (Page 115)