The Daily Stoic
Episodes
Why Do You Care What They Think?
11 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There’s a moment that almost everyone remembers from their childhood. They have just received something they really liked--a new shirt, a new toy, a...
What You Think You’re Lacking Is The Problem
10 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
George Ball, the diplomat and advisor to President Kennedy (one of who David Halberstam would call ‘the best and the brightest’), once observed ab...
Love Always
09 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
1981 was a tough year for tennis great Billie Jean King. That year, she sat down to write her memoir having endured serious betrayal on multiple front...
Things Worse Than Dying
08 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Death and dying are the worst parts of life, right? After all, they do end the whole thing. So while it does make sense, generally, to try to avoid d...
If Today Was Your Last Day
05 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
We put a lot of thought into making distinctions about what’s urgent and what’s not. We put a lot of effort into planning. We have our conservativ...
We Pay The Iron Price
04 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In Game of Thrones, the people of the Iron Islands believe they have been entitled by God to steal and seize whatever they like. Women, land, possessi...
Nothing Exempts You From Hard Work
03 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s interesting, if you think about Greek and Roman mythology, that the Gods were so active and busy. Athena and Circe and Hermes all worked to hel...
Nothing Can Touch The Soul
02 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The anti-war novel Johnny Got His Gun and the song it inspired, One by Metallica, tell the story of Joe Bonham, a soldier who has been grievously inju...
It’s Time To Get Up. It’s Time To Get Up
01 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
One of the best passages in all of Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations is the opener to Book V. In it, Marcus has a dialog with himself as he struggles to...
Another Reason To Journal
28 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In Walter Isaacson’s wonderful new biography of Leonardo Da Vinci, he spends a lot of time dissecting and exploring the ideas in Da Vinci’s notebo...
Don’t Make This Mistake (Or Stop Before It’s Too Late)
27 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Why are good people attracted to serving bad people or bad causes? Aristotle taught Alexander the Great. Seneca advised Nero. Da Vinci attached himsel...
Love Not Hate
26 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s easy to stir up resentment, harder to create common ground. It’s easy to point out what’s wrong, it’s much more difficult to come up with...
Make Sure You're Coming Home
21 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
All of us have day jobs. Even professional philosophers are still professors or authors, which means they have other responsibilities than just thinki...
Different Folks Need Different Strokes
20 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Confucius was once asked for advice by a student, and in replying essentially urged him to wait and be patient. Later he was asked for advice by anoth...
What To Do When You’re Not Naturally Perfect
19 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It was on this day in the year 86 AD, that Antoninus Pius, the man who would become best known as the stepfather of Marcus Aurelius, was born. Most pe...
Approach Your Troubles Like Doctor
18 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It’s famously said that you should learn from the mistakes of others because you can’t live long enough to make them all yourself. In that way, th...
This Will Help You Get Rid Of Crazy Thoughts
17 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In Aaron Thier’s novel The World Is A Narrow Bridge (the title is a proverb we have written about before), one of the main characters is a runner. H...
Virtue Is Contagious (and Has Obligations)
14 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The line from Confucius was that “Virtue is never solitary; it always has neighbors.” What he meant by that was that good behavior and good thinki...
It Comes For All, Young And Old
13 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The New York Times Obituary section this past weekend featured a somberly diverse list of losses: William Jordan, the impressionist, was dead at 91. E...
What Should Good People Do?
12 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Confucius, like Seneca, was an interesting hybrid of philosopher and politician. For instance, in addition to his teachings and writings, he pushed fo...
The Ideal Weapon For Spiritual Combat
11 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Michel Foucault has a fascinating essay on journaling entitled “Self-Writing.” In it, he describes journaling as a “weapon in spiritual combat,”...
You Are Worth Fighting For
10 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today is World Suicide Prevention Day. Given that a number of prominent Stoics committed suicide, and that suicide was described by Epictetus as the “...
Study The Lives of The Greats
07 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It would be this Sunday that in the year 1813, General William Henry Harrison sent three volumes of an ancient book to his 15 year old son, John. The ...
The Only Kind Of Comparison Worth Doing
06 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
It is said that comparison is the thief of joy and is, therefore, mostly to be avoided. This is true. You’re on your own journey with your own uniqu...
How Are You Still Not Doing This?
05 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Saint Athanasius of Alexandria wrote in Vita Antonii that the reason he did his journaling--his confessing, as the genre was called by the Christians-...
This Message Is Waiting For You
04 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
On April 24th 1924, the pioneer writer Laura Ingalls Wilder got a note that he mother, aged 84, had died. It was a sad day, particularly since it had ...
In This Way You Are Unstoppable
03 Sep 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Acceptance? Resignation? That’s not me, we say, when we hear the Stoics preach those concepts. I never give up. I’m a fighter. Ok. If you say so. ...
Your Heart Shouldn’t Be Getting Harder As You Go
31 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The old joke--which dates back to the 1870s--is that if you’re not a liberal when you’re young you have no heart, but if you’re still a liberal ...
This Is The Only Thing That Matters in Life
30 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 1940, while he was struggling as an undergraduate at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Walker Percy wrote to his uncle and adopted f...
Why You Do This Work
29 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There is an element of this philosophy that is a lot of work. You do all this reading. You do your morning and evening journaling. Maybe you attend me...
There Is Always Something To Be Grateful For
28 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most stunning things about Anne Frank’s diary is how indefatigably happy it is. One might expect that her journal, which she kept from 19...
Why You’re The Luckiest Person In The World
27 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
“It’s unfortunate that this happened,” Marcus says in one of his imaginary dialogs. Then he corrects himself: “No. It’s fortunate that this ...
How To Make The World A Better Place
24 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The line from George Bernard Shaw was that “all progress depends on the unreasonable man.” He isn’t wrong. The reasonable man bends himself to t...
Everything Hangs By A Thread
22 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
One of the most misleading things about our world today is the increased sense of comfort we feel. Yes, on average planes crash less. Yes, diseases ha...
Here’s Why Worry Is Pointless
22 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Humble people worry less than the arrogant. Why is that? Because they aren’t so conceited as to think they have any idea (or control over) what may ...
It Helps To Be A Little Deaf
17 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Ruth Bader Ginsburg was given a little piece of advice on her wedding day by her mother in law: "In every good marriage, it helps sometimes to be a li...
Be Tough On Yourself and Understanding To Others
17 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Remember that Stoicism isn’t about judging other people. It’s not a moral philosophy you’re supposed to project and enforce onto the world. No, ...
You Always Have a Move to Make
17 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Today you might find yourself dealing with something tough. Stuck in a new situation. Hit with a situation that’s been developing for some time, but...
Exploring the Softer Side
17 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There is a harshness and a hardness to the Stoics. But there is also a softness and a grace, the velvet glove over the iron first. Think of Marcus tal...
Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
17 Aug 2018
Contributed by Lukas
There’s no way around the fact that the Stoics talked about suicide. A lot. To the Stoics, suicide was famously the “open door”—the option ava...