By: Stephen Hanselman [1] If You Want a Smooth Flow of Life, Live According to Nature At the core of Stoic teaching is the founder Zeno’s idea that a smooth flow of life (euroia biou) comes from “living in agreement with nature.” It was the second leader of the Stoics, Zeno’s student Cleanthes, who added the last part, “with nature” (te phusei; or […]
Zoe Williams profiled Ryan Holiday, a one-time public-relations whiz-kid who's reinvented himself over the past decade as a speaker for the dead: specifically Epictetus, Seneca, and above all Marcus Aurelius, the figureheads of the ancient school of philosophy we now know as Stoicism.
Imagine two friends, Steve and Fred, chatting at a New Year’s party. Both of them resolve to abstain from alcohol for January, and attend the gym regularly. They shake on it. They don’t want to let each other down, and they both fulfill their commitments. Afterward, Steve keeps up his routine, and Fred soon drifts back to too much beer
The most surprising thing is that you wouldn’t let anyone steal your property, but you consistently let people steal your time, which is infinitely more valuable.
Born nearly two thousand years before Darwin and Freud, Epictetus seems to have anticipated a way out of their prisons.
For many people, the world is in a state of upheaval that can feel difficult to cope with, but can the teachings of the Stoics help in these troubling times?
Everyone from Silicon Valley billionaires to self-help enthusiasts is repurposing Stoicism for our modern age, with results that are good, bad, and highly indifferent.
Book summary for 'Man's Search for Meaning' by Viktor Frankl. Included is book overview, key takeaways, best quotes, and more.
"Ego sucks us down like the law of gravity." —Cyril Connolly Inspired by the international bestseller Ego Is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday, Daily Stoic is excited to introduce the Ego Is the Enemy medallion. Ego is that outsized sense of self-importance, that malignant self-absorption, a belief that one is somehow inherent
Summum Bonum was the expression from Cicero, Rome’s greatest orator. In Latin, it means “the highest good.” And what is the highest good? What is it that we are supposed to be aiming for in this life? To the Stoics, the answer is virtue. They said that everything we face in life was an opportunity […]
The Emperor-Philosopher Marcus Aurelius, once the most powerful man on earth, was also a practitioner of Stoicism. He had 3 rules for life.
Meditations is a series of personal writings by Marcus Aurelius, Roman Emperor from AD 161 to 180, recording his private notes to himself and ideas on Stoic philosophy.
If you’re interested in using the ideas from Stoicism as a way of life, feel free to listen to my podcast series called Practicing Stoicism.
Anger is temporary madness: to avoid the triggers, follow the Stoics’ advice and achieve a kind of serenity
