It’s No Good Without This | Epicurus’ Secret to the Good Life
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What are the key Stoic virtues introduced in this episode?
Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. Hey there, just a heads up. I'm gonna be on tour this summer and fall. You can come see me in San Francisco and Portland in June. You can see me in Australia and New Zealand in October. In August, I'm mixing my months up here, but in August, you can see me in Chicago and Minneapolis and Detroit. Then I'll be on the East Coast sometime in November and December. Anyways, grab tickets to that, dailystoiclive.com. Hope to see you there. It's no good without this. Maybe it'll help you get ahead. Maybe it will help you get rich. Maybe it will help you get closer to power, help you keep power.
As we see with Seneca, compromises can pay off. but they come at a high cost. Seneca was more pragmatic, more ambitious, more willing to turn a blind eye than his fellow Stoics, like Thrasia, who I profile in Lines of the Stoics. And this made him rich, it made him powerful, but he paid for it with his integrity and his peace. And in the end, he paid for it with his life. For what is a man profited, goes one of the most haunting questions in the book of Matthew. if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul. We forget this timeless wisdom and these cautionary tales at our peril. It will not turn out differently for us. We will not be the exception. Do not lie to yourself. Do not trade your soul away.
Because once it's gone, you cannot get it back. No amount of power or success will be worth it. No earthly reward is worth your values or your ability to look yourself in the mirror.
Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast. In the old days, in the ancient days, the Epicureans and the Stoics were rivals. They hated each other. In fact, there's one Stoic I talk about in Lives of the Stoics, this guy named Diotimus, who so hated Epicurus that he writes this series of letters that are purportedly to be by Epicurus that are in fact forgeries to kind of frame the Epicureans as these hedonists, as these liars, as these bad influences. None of it was true. This is obviously a betrayalist dosism, but I think it just highlights the rivalry that was long believed to exist between these two major philosophical schools. In some ways, kind of the narcissism of small differences because the Stoics and the Epicureans were closer than one might imagine.
The Epicureans weren't these pleasure-loving hedonists and the Stoics weren't these pleasure-hating gluttons for punishments, not by any means. as we are going to talk about, as you are going to see in today's episode. But I think it's worth pointing out, you know, who does Seneca quote more than any other philosopher? It's Epicurus. He quotes his rivals. He says, because I read like a spy in the enemy's camp. He said, I'll quote even a bad author if the line is good. Well, what we're going to be doing today is quoting a whole letter, an actual letter, not a fraudulent one, from Epicurus himself. This is Epicurus' letter to Menesius. It's a fascinating letter, one I think you absolutely should listen to.
It's sort of laying out his understanding of both ethics and the aesthetic life, how one finds pleasure not in sex or drugs, rock and roll or whatever, but in virtue itself. And it's never a bad time to hear someone speak as eloquently of virtue and the pleasures of the good life as Epicurus does in this letter. Enjoy. And if you want to read some more Epicurus, there is a great book called The Art of Living, which is from Penguin Classics. It's a collection of Epicurus's writings and his fragments. I used it as a source and stillness is the key. And I think you will like that. I would check that out and carry it to Painted Porch. I will link to it in today's episode.
Let no one when young delay to study philosophy, nor when he is old grow weary of his study. For no one can come too early or too late to secure the health of his soul. And the man who says that the age for philosophy has either not yet come or has gone by is like the man who says that the age for happiness has not yet come to him or has passed away.
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