Here’s Where You’ll Find True Beauty

“As we’ve discussed before, John Adams was one of those people whose racing mind gave them little rest. He was always doing, doing, doing and more dangerously, always thinking, thinking, thinking. His friends saw the pain this caused him and he saw it himself. As he said many times, all he wanted was “tranquility of mind”—stillness—but it was elusive.”Ryan describes the beauty that surrounds us, and why it is the height of brilliance, on 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 Daily Stoic:Twitter: https://twitter.com/dailystoicInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoic/Facebook: http://facebook.com/dailystoicYouTube: 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.

• 0:04Ryan 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 at DailyStoic.com.

• 0:27Ryan Holiday?

  Here's where you'll find true beauty. As we've discussed before, John Adams was one of those people whose racing mind gave him little rest. He was always doing, doing, doing, and more dangerously, always thinking, thinking, thinking. His friends saw the pain this caused him, and he saw it himself. As he said many times, "All he wanted was tranquility of mind, stillness." But it was elusive. Only later in life, after the loss of his wife and the end of his career, was he able to slow down a little. Only in the process of reading and rereading some of the classic texts of ancient Rome did Adams finally begin to achieve the mental breakthroughs he had craved for so long. And when he did, things began to change.

• 1:10Ryan Holiday?

  In 1819, the morning after a horrific march storm, Adams was hit with an epiphany. Despite the fact that the storm had ruined his farm's harvest, all he could see was beauty. He could see it in the utterly ordinary and plain winter landscape. As he wrote, "The icicles on every sprig glowed in all the luster of diamonds. Every tree was a chandelier of cut glass. I have seen a queen of France with diamonds upon her person, and I declare that all the charms of her face and figure added to all the glitter of her jewels did not make an impression on me equal to that presented by every shrub. The whole world was glittering with precious stones." It's beautiful, isn't it? It's reminiscent of Marcus Aurelius's writing,

• 1:55Ryan Holiday?

  "So vividly of the ordinary way that baking bread splits in places in those cracks while not intended in the baker's art, catch our eye and serve to stir our appetite." Or, as he said, "The charm and allure of nature's process, the stalks of ripe grain bending low, the frowning brow of the lion, the foam dripping from the boar's mouth." There's no anguish, despair, or discontent present in the marveling mind. There's complete tranquility and stillness. It's brilliance, really, and it's always within our reach. Beauty surrounds us, the flame dancing atop the candle's wick, the arm hairs standing up when it's a little colder than usual, the brake lights moving in perfect unison when green turns yellow, the leaves floating, swirling,

• 2:39Ryan Holiday?

  and bouncing off the sidewalk on a crisp fall morning, the rising sun's light piercing through your curtains and waking you up before the alarm was supposed to. The beautiful and the simple, the extraordinary and the mundane, never assume to comprehend. Instead, marvel and delight. In this moment, nothing is better, nothing is prettier, and life is good.

• 3:04Ryan Holiday?

  Thanks for listening to another episode of The Daily Stoic. It's mind blowing to me now that we are well over 30 million downloads of this show. It means so much to me to have all of you listen. If you want to help spread the word about the show, please leave a review on iTunes or whatever your favorite podcasting platform is. It helps a lot. And then, of course, click Subscribe. That's how we know how many people are listening and that makes sure you get the episodes as they come in. So thanks again for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast.