Courage is the Most Important Virtue

The Stoics believed that a life well lived was one which always countered adversity with virtue. And they believed in four aspects of virtue: courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. Each and every situation calls for one or more of these four Stoic virtues, and nothing in life exempts us from their power. Today, we begin with one of the most important: Courage. If you’ve read Cormac McCarthy’s dark and beautiful novel All the Pretty Horses, you’ll remember the key question that Emilio Perez asks John Grady, one that cuts to the core of life and what we all must do to live a life worth living.“The world wants to know if you have cojones. If you are brave?”The Stoics might have phrased this a bit differently. Seneca would say that he actually pitied people who have never experienced misfortune. “You have passed through life without an opponent,” he said, “No one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.”The world wants to know what category to put you in, which is why it will occasionally send difficult situations your way. Think of these not as inconveniences or even tragedies but as opportunities, as questions to answers. Do I have cojones? Am I brave? Am I going to face this problem or run away from it? Will I stand up or be rolled over? Let your actions etch a response into the record—and let them remind you of why courage is the most important thing. Check out our newest product, the Four Virtues Medallion. It's designed to exemplify the Four Stoic Virtues—and help you keep them in your heart. 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.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  The Stoics believed that a life well-lived was one which always countered adversity with virtue, and they believed in four aspects of virtue: courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. Each and every situation, they said, calls for one or more of these four Stoic virtues, and nothing in life exempts us from their power. Today, we begin with one of the most important: courage. If you've read Cormac McCarthy's dark and beautiful novel, All the Pretty Horses, you'll remember the key question that Emilio Perez asks John Grady, one that cuts to the core of life and what we all must do to live a life worth

• 1:12Ryan Holiday?

  living. "The world wants to know if you have cojones," he says, "if you are brave." The Stoics might have phrased this a bit differently. Seneca would say that he actually pitied people who had never experienced misfortune. "You have passed through life without an opponent," he said. "No one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you." The world wants to know what category to put you in, which is why it will occasionally send difficult situations your way. Think of these not as inconveniences or even tragedies, but as opportunities, as questions to answer. Do I have cojones? Am I brave? Am I going

• 1:54Ryan Holiday?

  to face this problem or run away from it? Will I stand up or be rolled over? Let your actions etch a response into the record. Let them remind you of why courage is the most important thing. So some exciting news. At Daily Stoic, we just released our Four Virtues Medallion. The Stoics, as I said, believed there are four virtues: courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. And that everything in life was an opportunity to illustrate and exemplify those virtues. And so we've made this beautiful brass medallion. It's manufactured here in the United States at a mint that's been operating since 1882. This is now going to go into my everyday carry. On the front, it's got a symbol of each one of the virtues.

• 2:39Ryan Holiday?

  And then on the back, it says, courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. And then it's got a line from Marcus Aurelius where he says, "Try not to exchange these virtues for others." So you can check that out at the Daily Stoic store. Go to www.dailystoic.com/4virtues.