There Is Nothing Special About Money

"For all the poverty he practiced and Stoic philosophy he wrote, clearly there was some part of Seneca that was dazzled by money. Even though he was born into a wealthy family, he wanted more and more of it. That’s what drew him into Nero’s service, where he accumulated a net worth of millions and millions of dollars. So too with Cicero, who was born to a less prestigious family, but still strove for fame and fortune. Although Cicero refused to take bribes as a politician, he had no problem marrying rich or accepting large gifts from benefactors. What’s striking, though, about these two men’s lives is that while they eventually achieved their grand ambitions—accumulating much fame and fortune—they, with time, came to be disillusioned by it all."Find out the true importance of money, and what trumps it, in today's Daily Stoic Podcast.***If you enjoyed this week’s podcast, we’d love for you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts. It helps with our visibility, and the more people listen to the podcast, the more we can invest into it and make it even better. Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: http://DailyStoic.com/signupFollow @DailyStoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanholidayInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ryanholiday/Facebook: http://facebook.com/ryanholidayYouTube: https://www.youtube.com/dailystoicSee 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?

  There's nothing special about money. For all the poverty he practiced in the Stoic philosophy he wrote, clearly there was some part of Seneca that was dazzled by money. Even though he was born into a wealthy family, he wanted more and more of it. That's what drew him into Nero's service, where he accumulated a net worth of millions and millions of dollars. So too was Cicero, who was born to a less prestigious family, but still strove for fame and fortune. Although Cicero refused to take bribes as a politician, he had no problems marrying rich or accepting large gifts from benefactors. What's striking, though, about these two men's lives is that while they eventually achieved their grand ambitions, accumulating much fame and fortune, they, with time, came to be disillusioned by it

• 1:14Ryan Holiday?

  all. Both Cicero and Seneca died in exile. Both of them had much of their wealth confiscated. Both of them came to despise the corruption and evil and excesses of their time. They had played the game for a long time, wanting to be part of the in-crowd, wanting to be liked, doing what they needed to fight for their spot, and then only slowly realized that the game had been playing them the whole time, and in fact, that the people they wanted to be accepted by were actually awful and possibly evil. In a way, their story mirrors a realization that Hemingway captured in one of his stories about his friend F. Scott Fitzgerald. "The rich were dull and they drank too much," he said, "or they played too much backgammon. They were dull and they were repetitious." He remembered poor Scott

• 1:58Ryan Holiday?

  Fitzgerald and his romantic awe of them, and how he had started a story once that began, "The very rich are different from you and me," and how someone had said to Scott, "Yes, they have more money." But that was not humorous to Scott. He thought they were a special glamorous race, and when he found out they weren't, it wrecked him as much as any other thing that wrecked him. So it went for Cicero and Seneca, and so it will go for you. You should not need to learn that money is worthless and does not make you more worthwhile as a person by experience. You can see that right now from history. You should not tie your fantasies up in fancy things or exotic trips. You should not trade too much of your most precious asset in the world, your time, for an incredibly common and infinite thing: dollars.

• 2:43Ryan Holiday?

  There's nothing special about money, or being rich, or being important. Realize that now, before it's too late. Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. I've been raving about today's sponsor for a while now, Magic Spoon Cereal. And I thought I loved Magic Spoon. Yesterday, I got in the mail their new flavor, Birthday Cake, and it is far and away my favorite. And let me tell you, this box is not going to be here much longer. So I love Magic Spoon Cereal, can't recommend it enough. They're sponsoring the show because I love it a lot, so check it out, magicspooncereal.com, code DAILYSTOIC.