You Can Always Possess This

This tradition of warrior Stoics continued up through and past Admiral Stockdale, who would test Epictetus’s doctrines in the prison camps of Vietnam (his book Courage Under Fire is a must read for any modern Stoic). Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, all but predicted this would be the fate of the Stoics. “If you lay violent hands on me,” he said in 3rd century Greece, “you’ll have my body, but my mind will remain with Stilpo.” Stilpo was a Greek philosopher, meaning that you could torture Zeno, you could possess his body, but you could never control his mind. He was saying a version of what we said recently—that the idea of Stoicism is to surrender but not give yourself away. Isn’t that what Stockdale was doing? He submitted to his imprisonment because it was a physical fact of his existence. He accepted, perhaps a bit more realistically than the Stoics, that under torture, no man was fully unbreakable, that you would ultimately have to give some information up under duress. (We talked to one of his fellow POWs, Dave Carey, on the podcast about just this idea.) But Stockdale still asserted that he had ultimate control of his thoughts, of his character, his sense of self. No one could take that from him and more important, he would never give it up.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee 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.

• 0:03Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom in everyday 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, dailystoic.com.

• 0:24Ryan Holiday?

  You can always possess this. The Stoics were thrown in jail. They were exiled. They were sold as slaves and tortured. They were sent to prison camps. They were condemned to painful deaths. This is because Rome was a cruel place. It's also because the Stoics were not just active in war and political life, but active dissonance. In one era of terrible emperors, a group of them was known as the Stoic Opposition. And this tradition of warrior Stoics continued up, through, and past Admiral Stockdale, who would test Epictetus's doctrines in the prison camps of Vietnam. And his book Courage Under Fire is a must-read for any modern Stoic. Zeno, the founder of Stoicism, all but predicted that this would be the fate of the Stoics. "If you lay violent hands on me," he said

• 1:07Ryan Holiday?

  in 3rd century Greece, "you'll have my body, but my mind will remain with Stilpo." Stilpo was a Greek philosopher, meaning that you could torture Zeno, you could possess his body, but you could never control his mind. He was saying a version of what we said recently, that the idea of Stoicism is to surrender, but not give yourself away. Isn't that exactly what Stockdale was doing? He submitted to his imprisonment, because it was a physical fact of his existence. He accepted, perhaps a bit more realistically than the Stoics, that under torture, no man was fully unbreakable, that you would ultimately have to give up some information under duress. We actually talked to one of his fellow POWs on the podcast, Dave Carey, about this very idea. But still, Stockdale asserted that he had ultimate control of his thoughts,

• 1:52Ryan Holiday?

  of his character, of his sense of self. No one could take that from him. And more important, he would never give it up. And the same is true for us here in our much cushier and thankfully less cruel world. Stuff can happen to us. Threats, or maybe incentives, can be leveled. Confined ourselves in places or positions we would rather not be. Yet our minds remain our own. We can remain fully focused and committed to philosophy, to our values. We can remain with Stillpo.