We Want That But Need This | Ask DS

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

• 0:02Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you in your everyday life. Well, on Thursdays, we not only read the daily meditation, but we answer some questions from listeners and fellow Stoics who are trying to apply this philosophy just as you are. Some of these come from my talks, some of these come from Zoom sessions that we do with Daily Stoic Life members, or as part of the challenges. Some of them are from interactions I have on the street when there happened to be someone there recording. But thank you for listening, and we hope this is of use to you.

• 0:42Ryan Holiday?

  We think we need a lot to be happy. We think we need piles of money and power and fame, and that to get that perfect house and marry that perfect person, there are so many things we tell ourselves we have to have. But for centuries, the wisest minds have been saying some version of what Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditations, "Very little is needed to make a happy life." And a little less than 2,000 years later, Goethe wrote, "One ought to, every day at least, to hear a little song, read a good poem, see a fine picture, and if it were possible, to speak a few reasonable words." Seneca similarly suggested that each day we should find a good quote, or read a good story, or have a good exchange with

• 1:27Ryan Holiday?

  a friend. "That's it," he says, "that will fortify you against poverty, against death, indeed against other misfortunes as well." Just a few things. A good quote to start the morning, a little song to start the workday, a good poem with lunch, a fine picture next, and a few reasonable words spoken over dinner with a friend or a loved one, or in the pages of a journal. Do that each day, and you will have a happy and a wise. And actually, I'm just busting out. I just got home. I was gone. I'm just busting out the new Daily Stoic calendar, one quote every day. It's the quote in the Daily Stoic book, but if you want it on your nightstand, if you want it on your bathroom counter, or I keep one on my desk, there's also one on the counter at the painted porch.

• 2:12Ryan Holiday?

  You should check out the Daily Stoic Tear Away Calendar, 365 Days of Stoic Quotes, featuring quotes from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus, and more. You can check it out at store.dailystoic.com, or I'll link to it in today's episode notes, but check it out. Talk soon.

• 2:36Speaker 01

  Hello, puzzlers, and welcome to the Puzzler Podcast, the marble pediment atop your Roman puzzle temple. I am your host, AJ Jacobs, and I am joined by today's guest, the amazing Ryan Holiday, podcaster, multiple bestselling author of books such as The Ego is the Enemy and Stillness is the Key. Welcome, Ryan. Thanks for having me. I am so excited. I know you're not a huge puzzler, but I think you're gonna like this one. I think you're gonna be kind. This is more of a quiz, right? It's a little more of a quiz. I think I would make a difference between puzzles and quizzes, I feel. And you prefer the quiz. Yeah, I could do a quiz, yeah. All right. Well, I did give you a hint of what it is, and it's based on your wonderful

• 3:16Speaker 01

  podcast, The Daily Stoic, which I am honored to have been a guest on. And on your podcast, you talk about the wisdom of the ancient Greek and Roman Stoic philosophers and how their wisdom can be applied today. So this puzzle is all about Stoic wisdom. Okay. And the quiz is Stoic philosopher or cartoon character? Okay. So I'm gonna give you two quotes, one from a Stoic philosopher, one from a cartoon character or comic character. You have to tell me which is which, and they're gonna be mixed up in the order. So are you ready? Yes. All right. Now, I think, honestly, you, I think you're gonna do pretty well on this, but hopefully. It'll be embarrassing if I don't. Well, I'm hoping that maybe some of the listeners might be fooled by some.

• 4:01Speaker 01

  Okay. All right, here goes quote, here's the first two quotes. Quote number one, "My life has no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy." Quote number two, "Be content with what you are and wish not change."

• 4:19Ryan Holiday?

  Uh, I'm gonna say the first is a Stoic and the second maybe sounds like Yoda or something.

• 4:25Speaker 01

  Wow. Right out of the gate, I think I got you.

• 4:28Ryan Holiday?

  No.

• 4:29Speaker 01

  Yeah. Wait, so let me.

• 4:30Ryan Holiday?

  Okay.

• 4:31Speaker 01

  My life has no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I'm happy is from Snoopy.

• 4:37Ryan Holiday?

  Oh, great.

• 4:37Speaker 01

  The Peanuts character.

• 4:39Ryan Holiday?

  All right, I'm off to a bad start already.

• 4:41Speaker 01

  And be content with what you are and wish not change is from Marcus Aurelius.

• 4:46Ryan Holiday?

  Wow.

• 4:46Speaker 01

  At least according, now we should, I did try to fact check this, but you know, my, the listeners could come in and tell me if I got it wrong.

• 4:54Ryan Holiday?

  Well, it's all about the translations, right? So, so you could hear that exact quote from a different translation and recognize it immediately.

• 5:00Speaker 01

  Exactly, yes.

• 5:02Ryan Holiday?

  And I think that that's something I've always been struck by when a lot of the things that are free on the internet from the Stoics are like the 19th century translations. And so they tend to be very kind of wonky and it's like, he wasn't saying like thou shall not.

• 5:16Speaker 01

  Right, right.

• 5:17Ryan Holiday?

  Because that was an 18th century configuration of speech. So, all right, great.

• 5:22Speaker 01

  All right. How about this one? Quote number one, whatever happens to you has been waiting to happen since the beginning of time.

• 5:29Ryan Holiday?

  Okay.

• 5:30Speaker 01

  And quote number two is, rivers know there is no hurry. We shall get there someday.

• 5:36Ryan Holiday?

  I would say the first one is a Stoic.

• 5:38Speaker 01

  You are correct. You are correct. It's your man, Marcus Aurelius, great Roman emperor and Stoic. And the second is Winnie the Pooh. Winnie the Pooh.

• 5:46Ryan Holiday?

  Okay.

• 5:46Speaker 01

  I feel was, there's a whole book, like the Dalawu.

• 5:49Ryan Holiday?

  There is, and there's a lot of rivers metaphors in Meditations.

• 5:52Speaker 01

  Oh, really?

• 5:53Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah.

• 5:54Speaker 01

  Do you remember?

• 5:54Ryan Holiday?

  Well, he wrote a, he wrote a good chunk of it near the Danube River.

• 5:58Speaker 01

  Really?

• 5:59Ryan Holiday?

  And obviously the Tiber goes through Rome. Yeah, he talks about the river's unending flow. He talks about how time passes by us like a river.

• 6:06Speaker 01

  Is he the one who said, when you put your foot in the river?

• 6:09Ryan Holiday?

  That's Herakles, but the Stoics sort of, he's, he talks about Herakles a lot. So he kind of alludes to that quote.

• 6:15Speaker 01

  Got it.

• 6:15Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah.

• 6:15Speaker 01

  And that was, I'm butchering it, but something like you put your foot in the river, take it out, put it in again, it's a different river. Was that the idea?

• 6:22Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah, it says, we never step in the same river twice.

• 6:24Speaker 01

  Got it. Yeah, that's a good one. I think Winnie the Pooh would agree. Okay. All right, here's another. The circumstances of one's birth are irrelevant. It is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are. That's quote number one. Quote number two is circumstances don't make the man. They only reveal him to himself. So that's a challenging like, because they're the same quote.

• 6:45Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah, very similar.

• 6:46Speaker 01

  They're the same quote.

• 6:47Ryan Holiday?

  I think the second one is Epictetus.

• 6:48Speaker 01

  Yes, you do. You know, you're Epictetus. And the first one you might not know as well, but is Mewtwo from Pokemon.

• 6:57Speaker 01

  Who was apparently in the first movie said some very profound things. He was a genetic clone.

• 7:03Ryan Holiday?

  Well, my eight year old will like to hear that.

• 7:04Speaker 01

  Yeah, there you go. All right, few more. Very little is needed to make a happy life. It is all within yourself in your way of thinking. There is no secret ingredient. It's just you. Do you happen to know what philosopher said that?

• 7:18Ryan Holiday?

  No.

• 7:19Speaker 01

  Poe, the panda's father from Kung Fu Panda about noodle soup. No secret ingredient. It's just you. All right, this one I thought was, they were both profound. Quote number one, accept the things to which fate binds you. Accept what fate tells you, gives you. Quote number two, you can't keep blaming yourself. Just blame yourself once and move on.

• 7:43Ryan Holiday?

  The first is Marx, really?

• 7:45Speaker 01

  That's correct. That is correct. And the second, do you know which philosopher said that?

• 7:48Ryan Holiday?

  No, I like it though.

• 7:49Speaker 01

  Homer Simpson.

• 7:50Ryan Holiday?

  There we go.

• 7:52Speaker 01

  I think it's so true, though. It is so true. Blame yourself once.

• 7:56Ryan Holiday?

  The best Homer quote is where he goes like, this is the worst day ever. Bart says this, and then Homer says, worst day ever so far.

• 8:05Speaker 01

  I like that. That's my problem with goat, the greatest of all time.

• 8:10Ryan Holiday?

  Yes.

• 8:11Speaker 01

  It should be greatest of all time so far.

• 8:13Ryan Holiday?

  So far, yeah.

• 8:13Speaker 01

  Goatous.

• 8:16Speaker 01

  All right. This one I think you will get, but I just like the, the contrast. A gem cannot be polished without friction, nor a man perfected without trials. That's quote number one. Quote number two is dude, sucking is the first step to being sort of good at something.

• 8:37Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah, that definitely sounds like Marcus Aurelius there, the second one. The first is Seneca, right?

• 8:43Speaker 01

  Exactly, Seneca. And the second, I don't know if your kids watch this yet, but it is Jake from Adventure Time.

• 8:52Ryan Holiday?

  Oh, yes, my son loves the Adventure Time books, but I did not know that he says that. But that makes sense. I like it.

• 8:58Speaker 01

  Well, Ja- yeah, Jake the Dog. That is a great show if your kids get into it.

• 9:03Ryan Holiday?

  We have the books in the bookstore.

• 9:04Speaker 01

  Really? I didn't even know it was based on a book. Well, they are saying very profound things all the time. Here, actually, I'll just read one other quote from Jake the Dog outside of a quiz. "Let's go in the garden. You'll find something waiting there for you where you left it. You'll see how it's faded. The underside is lighter. Everything stays right where you left it, but it still changes ever so slightly."

• 9:28Ryan Holiday?

  Ooh, that's like the No River, uh, you can't step on the same river twice.

• 9:32Speaker 01

  I thought it was Stoic. I thought it was Stoic.

• 9:34Ryan Holiday?

  I like it.

• 9:34Speaker 01

  All right, what about this? Because this relates to what we were talking about in our interview about sort of, uh, one, the personal responsibility in making change. Quote number one is, "If it is not right, do not do it. If it is not true, do not say it. You're shaking your head."

• 9:50Ryan Holiday?

  I know. Okay.

• 9:51Speaker 01

  And then number two, "One person really can make a difference, but most of the time, they probably shouldn't."

• 10:00Ryan Holiday?

  The first is Marcus Aurelius.

• 10:02Speaker 01

  Right.

• 10:03Ryan Holiday?

  And we actually even have a coin that we sell in Daily Stoic. It says, "Just that you do the right thing, the rest doesn't matter." It's part of that quote, I believe. Uh, but I don't know where the second one is from. What's that from?

• 10:17Speaker 01

  That is from the wife of one, of another philosopher we quoted. That's Marge Simpson.

• 10:21Ryan Holiday?

  Ah, sure.

• 10:22Speaker 01

  So she was saying, "I guess one person really..."

• 10:24Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah, the epistemic humility.

• 10:26Speaker 01

  Exactly. We all think we're so sure we're making a difference. Well, I got your first one, which is very exciting, but after that, you nailed them all.

• 10:34Ryan Holiday?

  Well, the Stoics, there's a quote from Marcus Aurelius, you could put it in your quiz where he talks about, you know, when you, when you mess up, you gotta come back to the rhythm very quickly. You can't get rattled. So I feel like I've recovered nicely.

• 10:45Speaker 01

  Yeah, no, you were living, that's why you did it, so that you could... Live out, Marcus. Before I go, do you feel that there are any particularly stoic characters in fiction, either comics or movies?

• 10:59Ryan Holiday?

  Ooh, I mean, there's, I think, a stoic element to Yoda. He's sort of a philosopher type. Yeah, who else would I, who else would I pick?

• 11:06Speaker 01

  I mean, who were sort of the people who are able to control their passions? I'm trying to think of.

• 11:13Ryan Holiday?

  Well, my favorite George Washington one to go to your, your new book is one of the painters or sculptors of Washington. He spends all his time with them and he says, you know, this idea of, because Washington was known for his like self-command.

• 11:26Speaker 01

  Yes.

• 11:26Ryan Holiday?

  And everyone thought he was this kind of superhuman guy. And what he realized, watching him up close and seeing how he interacted with people, is that he was actually a very tense guy. He said Washington's first victory was clearly over himself.

• 11:40Speaker 01

  Right.

• 11:40Ryan Holiday?

  That, so instead of seeing Washington as this guy who didn't have passions or a temper, it was actually more impressive to see him as a very angry guy who didn't get angry.

• 11:50Speaker 01

  Right.

• 11:51Ryan Holiday?

  And that, that like he had all the passions. He just had actually practiced the philosophy and had a certain amount of self-awareness that allowed him not to be at the mercy of them all the time.

• 12:01Speaker 01

  Right.

• 12:02Ryan Holiday?

  I thought that was very impressive.

• 12:03Speaker 01

  That is impressive. And he was at the mercy, I know he, he cursed a lot at his cabinet. There is one quick story about how early in his political career, he got in an argument, another guy insulted him and hit him with a hickory stick.

• 12:17Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah.

• 12:17Speaker 01

  Actually hit him. And George Washington's sent word that he wanted to meet this guy the next day. The guy is freaking out and George Washington apologized to him for any offense he might have caused and extended the hand of friendship, so.

• 12:34Ryan Holiday?

  Well, Washington's model in all things, other than Cincinnatus, was Cato. There's a story about Cato getting jostled in a bath. They're walking in the, the Roman baths and he gets bumped and it's sort of a fracas breaks out. The man punches him and later then apologizes to Cato for punching him because he doesn't want a sort of a blood feud or something. And, and Cato's response is, I don't even remember being hit. Not only doesn't respond, but he's purging himself of even the incident having happened.

• 13:02Speaker 01

  Nice one.

• 13:02Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah.

• 13:03Speaker 01

  Well, Cato was one of the other ones. "I begin to speak only when I'm certain what I'll say is not better left unsaid," with his quote. And then from another philosopher, "There's no sense of doing a lot of barking if you don't have anything to say." That's from Snoopy.

• 13:18Speaker 01

  All right, well, thank you.

• 13:19Ryan Holiday?

  Yeah, of course.

• 13:19Speaker 01

  For our puzzlers at home, we always have an extra credit, so I'm gonna do that now. And that is quote number one. "How ridiculous and how strange it is to be surprised at anything which happens in life." That's quote number one. Quote number two, "Something weird might just be familiar, viewed from a different angle." Very both profound.

• 13:41Ryan Holiday?

  Very good.

• 13:42Speaker 01

  Thank you all. Come back and hear the answers. And in the meantime, you can check out our Instagram feed at Hello Puzzlers, where we have fresh, original puzzles. And please, see you soon for more puzzling puzzles that will puzzle you puzzlingly.

• 13:57Ryan Holiday?

  Hey, it's Ryan. Thank you for listening to the Daily Stoic Podcast. I just wanted to say, we so appreciate it. We love serving you. It's amazing to us that over 30 million people have downloaded these episodes in the couple of years we've been doing it. It's an honor. Please, spread the word. Tell people about it. And this isn't to sell anything. I just wanted to say, thank you.