Do Not Ignore This Warning

In Greek mythology, the god Apollo curses the Trojan princess, Cassandra, with the power of accurate prophecy that will always be ignored. In Aeschylus’ play Agamemnon, Cassandra is brought back to Greece after the capture of Troy as one of the great spoils of war. Unlike Agamemnon, who is happy to be home, Cassandra predicts ominous deaths for both herself and her new master. “I know that odor,” she says, “I smell the open grave.” She warns him that death is near, but he won’t listen. Agamemnon ignores the obvious signs and walks right into a trap—taking her with him. Soon enough, they are both murdered by Clytemnestra, his jealous, cheating wife. Cassandra might not be real, but the essential truth of her warning to Agamemnon is real enough: Memento mori. The grave is dug and waiting for each us. We know this, it was prophesied to us at birth—that one day we would die—and yet we go around living as if that isn’t true. We spend our time as if we have an infinite amount of it, as if someone isn’t waiting to steal our kingdom like Clytemnestra. A new year sits before us, but how many of us are holding our noses? Plugging our ears? Closing our eyes? Pretending as if we know for certain that we have plenty more left. Blithely acting as if nothing threatens us, as if we can afford to be entitled and unprepared. As Marcus said, we could leave life right now. We could leave life this week, this year, this morning. Are you ready? Have you been living with that in mind? Or have you been in denial? Do not wait for the doctor to deliver the prophecy to you a second time: You have cancer. You have leukemia. We’re not able to stop the bleeding. It will be too late when you hear these words. You’ll never get back what you wasted. Don’t ignore Cassandra’s warning. Do not doom yourself to a rude awakening—or rather a very rude and sudden sleep. Be ready. Be prepared. Listen. Live. While you still can. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info. 📢 Share | ⚙️ Manage Subscription

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:06Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to The Daily Stoic, where each day we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living the good life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us at dailystoic.com. Do not ignore this warning. In Greek mythology, the god Apollo curses the Trojan princess Cassandra with the power of accurate prophecy that will always be ignored. In the Aeschylus play Agamemnon, Cassandra is brought back to Greece after the capture of Troy as one

• 0:47Ryan Holiday?

  of the great spoils of war. Unlike Agamemnon, who is happy to be home, Cassandra predicts ominous deaths for both herself and her new master. "I know that odor," she says. "I smell the open grave." She warns him, but he won't listen. Agamemnon ignores the obvious signs and walks right into a trap, taking her with him. Soon enough, they are both murdered by his jealous, cheating wife. Cassandra might not be real, but the essential truth of her warning to Agamemnon is real enough. Memento mori. The grave is dug and waiting

• 1:27Ryan Holiday?

  for each of us. We know this. It was prophesied to us at birth that one day we would die, and yet we go around living as if that isn't true. We spend our time as if we have an infinite amount of it, as if someone isn't waiting to steal our kingdom from us. As Marcus said, "We could leave life right now. Are you ready? Do you make your choices accordingly? Do not wait for the doctor to deliver the prophecy to you a second time. You have cancer. You have leukemia. We're not able to stop the bleeding. It will be too late when you hear these words. You'll never get back what you wasted." Don't ignore Cassandra's warning.

• 2:11Ryan Holiday?

  Do not doom yourself to a rude awakening, or rather, a very rude and sudden sleep. Be ready, be prepared, listen, live.

• 2:21Ryan Holiday?

  While you still can. Hey, everyone. There's just a few more days to sign up for our 2020 New Year, New You Daily Stoic Challenge. I ask people like, look, what would you give to be the best person you know you're capable of being? What would you do to get rid of some of your bad habits? Replace them with new positive habits? Well, that's why we made this challenge. We want to work on ourselves every day, day to day, delight in our own improvement, as Epictetus said. And this challenge is going to help you do it. And it's going to help me do it because I'm going to be doing it there alongside you. You can check it out at dailystoic.com/challenge. But on January 1, it closes and no one else can do it because that's when it starts. And hopefully that's when the new you begins as well.