You Can Admit You Were Wrong
30 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A Stoic is determined, but not obstinate. A Stoic controls what they can, recognizes they cannot cha...
Make Beautiful Choices
29 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Epictetus says that “if your choices are beautiful, so too will you be.” It’s simple and it’...
Do This For Your Future Self
26 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The musician, producer, circus performer, entrepreneur, TED speaker, and author, Derek Sivers, recen...
Always Think Of Their Intentions
25 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We live in a culture where people sit on the sidelines and pass a lot of strong judgements. We look ...
Difficulty Is Forging Us Into Who We Need To Be
24 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Look, nobody wants to go through hard times. We’d prefer that things go according to plan, that wh...
We All Share This Thing Together
23 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Yesterday was the 49th year we celebrated Earth Day...in the 4.5 billionth year of the Earth’s exi...
When You're Having A Bad Day
22 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Theodore Roosevelt famously said that comparison is the thief of joy. Using what other people have o...
The Race To Run Is Against Yourself
19 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It can be deceiving to hear the Stoics talk about an indifference to external recognition or rewards...
Look For The Good
18 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Laura Ingalls Wilder had a hard scrabble existence. From the Kansas prairies to the backwoods of Flo...
Don’t Worry About Being Respected
17 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In a conversation on “You Made It Weird with Pete Holmes” about Martin Luther King Jr., the scre...
No Room For “Them”
16 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“They” hold up very poorly in Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations. Or maybe it’s more accurate to ...
How To Bounce Back
15 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When you begin to type “Marcus Lattimore” into Google, the first suggestion is “injury”. On ...
Here’s A Reason To Be Good
12 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The funny thing about egotistical people is that—despite any power or wealth they might have—the...
Freedom To or Freedom From?
11 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At the core of legal theory is this idea that there are essentially two forms of liberty—positive ...
All That Matters Is How We Respond
09 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was the great Athenian leader, Pericles, who said that there was nothing wrong with poverty. It c...
Do You Want To Be Less Angry?
08 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Few people have studied the life and writings of Seneca as deeply as James Romm has. Romm is the aut...
What Goes Up, Must Come Down
05 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Each of has been blessed by Fortune. We’re alive right now, instead of 50 or 500 years ago. We wer...
Do Better Where You Can
04 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When we look at the lives of a great man like Marcus Aurelius or a great woman like the Catholic act...
You Are Here On The Mountaintop
03 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The point of memento mori is not to make you sad. It’s not to make you anxious about how few days ...
It's Just The Glasses
02 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In his wonderful new book How To Think Like a Roman Emperor: The Stoic Philosophy of Marcus Aurelius...
All Things Can Be Used for a Purpose
01 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of the benefits of being an artist is that everything that happens to you—no matter how trauma...
Friendship Makes Life Worth Living
29 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
By now you may have read the viral story about the unexpected friendship between Charles Barkley and...
Do Not Be Afraid
28 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Life is pretty great, usually. Until you start thinking about what’s on the other side. That’s w...
Know It Inside And Out
27 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Admiral Hyman Rickover, the father of the nuclear navy in the United States and an unsung hero in th...
Take The Time To Be Grateful
26 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
AJ Jacobs is known for his unique style of immersion journalism. He’s lived, literally, according ...
We Are All Tested In Different Ways
25 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It was said that Socrates saw his difficult marriage as a sort of challenge that life threw at him—...
It Smells Like...Life
22 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The German poet Friedrich Schiller supposedly liked to write with a drawer filled with rotting apple...
Are You Tired Trying To Fill That Void?
21 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
All of us are trying to find something. Trying to find meaning, love, contentment. Because we feel l...
Do Your Best
20 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Gretchen Rubin is one of the most thought-provoking and influential experts on habits and happiness....
Beware the Voice in Your Head
19 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Seneca tells the story of the philosopher Crates, who was walking in Athens when he saw a young man ...
What It Really Means To Be A Slave
18 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Epictetus was born a slave. Quite literally, his name means, in Greek, acquired. Ultimately, he came...
The Most Important Thing: Realizing That We Are All One
15 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Let’s take a second to meditate on this observation from John Cage, the experimental musician and ...
Zoom Out...And Laugh
14 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The way to make all your problems, even the really vexing and painful ones, seem less severe? It com...
Why You Should Read Biographies
13 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
“I don’t have time to read a book that long,” you might say when someone recommends one of tho...
What Does It Feel Like To Lose All Your Money?
12 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Last year, the writer Chuck Palahniuk received the kind of news that all of us dread. Someone he tru...
Always, Ever The Same
11 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In his wonderful book, The Rise and Fall of Adam and Eve, the Pulitzer Prize winning scholar Stephen...
Take What’s Good, Ignore The Rest
08 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One of Seneca’s most powerful strategies comes from his time as a Senator. Speaking again of a tho...
Now Is Now
07 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There is a beautiful passage on the last page of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s, The Little House in the B...
Find A Good Outlet For Your Passions
06 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Although today we consider “passion” to be a good thing—as in find your passion—to the Stoic...
Is Ego A Virtue?
05 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In 2017, Good Morning Britain anchor Susanna Reid presented her co-anchor (actually she calls him he...
It’s Good That Things Have Been Hard
04 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Maybe you’ve had a hard time of it recently. That business project is three months over projection...
It’s Time: The Daily Stoic 10-Day Spring Forward Challenge
01 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Spring is here! While most of us unthinkingly set our clocks forward (or have devices that do it for...
Read Like A Spy
28 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
As we’ve written about before, one of the most surprising parts of Seneca’s writing is how that ...
How To Get Better (and Live a Great Life)
27 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Eleanor Roosevelt had a great rule. We must do the thing we cannot do, she said. And if you look at ...
The Three Hardest Things To Do In Life
26 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
According to the great Jesuit Monk, Anthony De Mello, there are three intellectual feats that we str...
What Not To Do With Your Freedom
25 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Last fall, there was a New York Times profile on what’s called the FIRE movement. FIRE stands for ...
How A Stoic Thinks About Sex
22 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If you’re born into certain religious faiths, you tend to be raised with strong views on sex that ...
Do Less, Better
21 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Here’s the simple recipe for improvement and for happiness. It comes from Marcus Aurelius and the ...
Speak The Truth, Let Them Howl
20 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
No matter what your profession is, there are things you can say that will cost you. Speaking up agai...
The One Thing To Be A Slave To
19 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Slavery is one of the most common metaphors in Seneca’s writing. He talks about people who are sla...
This Is What Progress Looks Like
18 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
How do you know you’re making progress in this philosophy? It’s a question that every person has...
This Is How To Go Out
15 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Epicurus’s final letter begins with a rather remarkable sentence: “On this happy day, which is t...
It Can Happen To You
14 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A few weeks ago, we ran an email about Austin Murphy, the former Sports Illustrated writer whose thi...
Escape This Indelible Stain
13 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Meditations, Marcus speaks passionately about escaping the “indelible stain” of power, of bei...
An Important Reminder To Do The Right Thing
12 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Our newest Daily Stoic coinSummum Bonum is an expression from Cicero, Rome’s greatest orator. In L...
What Will You Do Now?
11 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In the winter of 1824, things were not looking good for Simon Bolivar. He was at one of the lowest p...
YOU Are Not The Problem
08 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Epictetus’s most powerful line is about how it’s not things that upset us, but what we think abo...
How Do You Fill The Void?
07 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Seneca wrote constantly about time. One of his most compelling observations was about how people are...
Avoid Owing (and Being Owned)
06 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Seneca was a very rich man. He accumulated that fortune largely due to his service to Nero’s corru...
When You Should Give Up
05 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
No one would ever call Winston Churchill a quitter. His whole reputation is built on his instinct to...
All This In A Nutshell
04 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Near the end of the Eisenhower Administration, the speechwriter James C. Humes was asked to help the...
Out of Many, One
01 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The motto of the United States—seen imprinted on its currency and its buildings—is e pluribus un...
Success or Failure—Neither Reflect On You
31 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Just a few weeks ago, the writer Austin Murphy wrote an insightful, revealing article for The Atlant...
When Something Breaks
30 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
If a close friend had their home broken into, you’d comfort them and tell them that it was only st...
Closing Your Eyes Is Not An Excuse
29 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Richard III, Shakespeare has a scene where Brackenbury is handed orders from Richard by two men w...
The One (or Two) Words To Live By
28 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Confucius was once asked by a student if there was a single word to to live by, a word that would al...
How To Make Better Decisions in Life
25 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Believe it or not, there’s a pretty magical way to start making better decisions. It’s a secret ...
Don't Limit Yourself
24 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Epicurus’s dictum was that “One sage is no wiser than another.” Clearly, Seneca agreed with th...
If You Were Tested, Would You Pass?
23 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Perhaps you remember the 90s hit by the band The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, “The Impression That I G...
We Are What We Think About
22 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Ok, so it’s worth saying bluntly to any of the nice people out there who might believe in it: The ...
What Other People Get Away With Is Not An Excuse
21 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Let us stipulate first that Serena Williams is an extremely talented tennis player and an honest and...
We Must Live By This Rule
18 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Zigong once asked Confucius: “Is there one word which may serve as a rule of practice for all one’...
When Are You Going To Be Free?
17 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us tell ourselves that we’re putting up with ill-treatment or keeping our mouths shut abou...
How To Respond To Crazy People
16 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
One suspects Marcus Aurelius was referring to a particularly frustrating person, some opponent who j...
Don’t Be Distracted By Darkness
15 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There’s no question that depressing things happen in this world. They always have and always will....
The Civil War Inside Each One Of Us
14 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Martin Luther King Jr. was fond of using the American Civil War as a metaphor, not just to explain t...
This Is What Karma Looks Like
11 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There is a simple proposition at the heart of classical Christianity: if you are a good person and d...
The Great Equalizer
10 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The author Michael Malice has a running gag: whenever a celebrity dies he posts a meme that says RIP...
If It’s Not Simple, It’s Bullshit
09 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There’s not much in Stoicism that’s particularly groundbreaking: Focus on what you can control. ...
Find A Point!
08 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Peter Barton’s beautiful memoir, Not Fade Away: A Short Life Well Lived, takes readers along a man...
The Habit You Must Start This Year
07 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Why does Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations speak to us so? The answer, ironically, is that because the...
The One Thing You Must Avoid
04 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine this. You’ve worked for years on this novel—one that is indisputably the best thing you’...
Do The Little Thing, It’s All The Matters
03 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Tereza, as the Prague Spring happens and the Soviets begin a m...
It’s Not How Long You Live, It’s How You Live
02 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In late December, Richard Overton passed away at the ripe old age of 112 and 230 days. When he was b...
Keep These Thoughts At Hand, Everyday
01 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Stoics were all about routine and concentration. Epictetus said that philosophy was something th...
What We Do In Life Does Not Echo In Eternity
31 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In the movie Gladiator, Maximus, the protege of Marcus Aurelius, says famously, “What we do in lif...
Don’t Wait. Get Started. Now.
28 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
This is that weird time of year where we start to think about how we want the following year to go. ...
Everything Is Breaking Down
27 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nearly two thousand years before Rudolph Clausius and Lord Kelvin first expressed the second law of ...
Why You Need To Understand Power
26 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The actor Josh Peck recently had Robert Greene on his podcast to discuss the book, The Laws of Human...
Today Is A Very Special Day
25 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On December 25th, people all over the world celebrate Christmas, a holiday which marks the birth of ...
You Make Your Own Good Fortune
24 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We can all remember times when it felt like everything was going our way. We were getting the breaks...
Life Comes At You Fast Pt II
21 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Just two and a half years ago, General Michael Flynn stood on the stage at the Republican National C...
How To Be The MVP
19 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Yet again, Nick Foles has been called up to start at quarterback for the Eagles. After spending anot...
14 Day Stoic Challenge: New Year, New You
18 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We all know someone who constantly puts stuff off. Who loves to plan improvements for their health, ...
Here Are Signs You’re Making Progress
17 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Ok, you’ve been doing your reading and your journaling. You’re trying to be conscious of your th...
You Do You. Whether They Like it Or Not.
14 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Think of all the people throughout history who were wrongly condemned and criticized by the mob. Fro...
You Don’t Get To Be Apolitical
13 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There is a common complaint drifting through the culture these days: Why did you have to bring polit...
Don’t Let Your Virtues Become This Vice
12 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
So we’ve begun to get serious about our training, both physical and philosophical. Before, we neve...
Be Good To Each Other
11 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“Man’s inhumanity to manMakes countless thousands mourn.”It is a verse from the poet Robert Bu...
We Aren’t Rational, We Become Rational
10 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Most of us don’t think of ourselves as irrational. We don’t think we’re reactive creatures. We...