Ryan Holiday

Run down the list of those who felt intense anger at something.

The most famous, the most unfortunate, the most hated, the most whatever.

Where is all that now?

Smoke, dust, legend, or not even legend.

Think of all the examples and how trivial the things we want so passionately are.

It's heartbreaking.

It's true.

And all of us are guilty of it in our own way.

What are we fighting about?

What do we so passionately need?

Why do we so passionately need to be right?

Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

Why did Marcus Aurelius write his meditations?

It wasn't for an audience or to practice his Greek.

After all, he was already pretty accomplished in those areas.

Instead, we should think about what was going on around Marcus while he was writing it.

Conflicts threatened just beyond the border.

Economic troubles shook Rome's foundations.

A plague had ravaged the nation's populists.

And that's not even mentioning all the political corruption and the backstabbing and the chaos within palace walls.