Isn’t This What We’re After?

Why is that self-command and self-knowledge so elusive? How can we find it? 💡 We designed our How To Read Epictetus (A Daily Stoic Guide) http://dailystoic.com/ecourse as a personal field guide —part book club, part masterclass, part daily practice. It’s designed to help you not just read the words of Epictetus, but live them—to turn his timeless wisdom into real change in your own life and the lives of those around you. And if you get the guide before August 27th, you’ll receive a private invitation to an exclusive LIVE Q&A with Ryan Holiday, where he’ll go deep on all things Epictetus, Stoicism, and how to apply these ideas right now, in today’s world. Head to dailystoic.com/epictetuscourse http://dailystoic.com/epictetuscourse to learn more and get your book, guide, and bundle today! 👉 Get How To Read Epictetus (A Daily Stoic Guide) http://dailystoic.com/ecourse & all other Daily Stoic courses for FREE when you join Daily Stoic Life | dailystoic.com/life https://dailystoic.com/life/ 🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE https://www.dailystoiclive.com/| Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you https://www.dailystoiclive.com/! Grab tickets here https://www.dailystoiclive.com/ | https://www.dailystoiclive.com/ ✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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

• 0:00Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues— courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom—into the real world.

• 0:15Ryan Holiday?

  Hadrian had everything. He could do anything. He commanded an enormous army. He had access to the smartest advisors and the most illustrious men in the world. He could send for anyone, summon anyone. And yet, here he was, traveling more than 500 miles from Rome to the distant Greek city and Roman colony of Nacopolis to attend the lectures of a former slave? It's pretty incredible and beautiful, too, no? There is something poetic about Hadrian, then the emperor, sitting like an eager student at the foot of a man whose name literally just meant "acquired one."

• 0:59Ryan Holiday?

  And yet, in this instance, was the slave not then the master? Was that not the powerless conquering the powerful? Marcus Aurelius, a lifelong student of Epictetus and the adopted grandson of Hadrian, contrasted the great conquerors of the world against the wise men of history. And he believed that the thinkers came out the better because, he explained, the philosophers knew the what, the why, and the how. Their minds were their own. Isn't that what we're after? How can we seize that power? How can we reverse fortune, as Epictetus did? Well, that's what we're talking about this month here at Daily Stoic. We're studying the life of Epictetus.

• 1:43Ryan Holiday?

  July is going to be Epictetus Month. It's going to be a deep dive into the life, the lessons, the legacy of one of history's greatest philosophers. And if you want to join us, you want to go deeper, we'd love to have you. We did this guide on Epictetus, and we're doing kind of a book club about him. And I'd love to have you in there. If you want to learn how to read Epictetus, sign up right now at dailystoic.com/epictetuscourse. I'll link to it in today's show notes, of course. But basically, it's this structured companion to help you engage with Epictetus the way he's meant to be engaged as a teacher of practical daily tools for living. The same things that Hadrian was trying to incorporate in his life I'm trying to incorporate in my life

• 2:26Ryan Holiday?

  and thousands of Stoics all over the world are after as well. I think what we find in Epictetus is action over theory, right? We find sort of universality. Of course, he's also got his share of modern champions. And so, we're going to explore all that in how to read Epictetus at Daily Stoic Digital Guidance Course. And we're going to be having a big conversation about it, which I would love to see you in. As I said, dailystoic.com/epictetuscourse. And we'll get into it. Talk soon.