You Must Stay Outside of Time | 24 Life Changing Quotes From Epictetus

Technology is advancing rapidly. While every generation has felt like it was impossible to keep up, today it really is mindblowing to try to understand everything that’s happening on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence, machine learning, quantum computing, biotechnology, the blockchain, virtual and augmented reality, and on and on. World events and trends continue to accelerate too. Perhaps this is why the wisest people try to do the opposite of keeping up with it all.---And in today's Daily Stoic video excerpt, Ryan shares 24 of his favorite and most life-changing quotes from the ancient Roman slave turned student turned hugely influential Stoic, Epictetus. You can watch the video on YouTube.✉️ 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.

• 0:02Ryan 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. On Tuesdays, we take a closer look at these Stoic ideas, how we can apply them in our actual lives. Thanks for listening and I hope you enjoy.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  You must stay outside of time. Technology is advancing rapidly. And while every generation has felt like it was impossible to keep up today, it really is mind blowing to try to understand everything that's happening on the cutting edge of artificial intelligence, machine learning, quantum computing, biotechnology, the blockchain, virtual and augmented reality, and on and on. World events and trends continue to accelerate too. There is literally an inhuman amount of news produced each day, incomprehensible amount of new content on every single platform, all of it delivered instantaneously, directly into your eyes and ears. Perhaps this is why

• 1:13Ryan Holiday?

  the wisest people try to do the opposite of keeping up with it all. They eschew the latest on purpose. On a recent episode of the Daily Stoic Podcast, the legendary music producer, Rick Rubin, we actually did a fantastic double episode with him that you should listen to, he talked about why he doesn't try to chase trends.

• 1:31Speaker 01

  Yeah, I love music that is outside of time. And one of the things about using organic instruments is a piano sounds like a piano 100 years ago and it sounds like a piano today. And it'll sound like a piano in 100 years. If you use the latest sounds, the newest sounds, the sounds of today, then tomorrow they'll sound like the sounds of yesterday. So it's a, it's a very delicate line to work with the newest of sounds because it can end up sounding very dated.

• 2:10Ryan Holiday?

  Isn't this what we love about the Stoics too? That they are outside of time? Their wisdom is timeless because they weren't chasing trends, but ideas that were stable in time. In Meditations, we see Marcus quoting and referencing Euripides, Socrates, and Plato, writers from hundreds and hundreds of years before him. And this is no accident. In Meditations, Marcus actually reminds himself to stop being bounced around by every bit of breaking news and gossip, telling himself to turn inward, to zoom out, to slow down. Sure, to be successful, we have to have some sense of what's happening in the world, but we shouldn't live and die by that. It's far better to be rooted in something deeper, something less urgent, something more timeless.

• 2:51Ryan Holiday?

  Keep a finger on the pulse of today, but remember that most of the trends of today will tomorrow sound like the trends of yesterday. So let's continue to invest our time and attention and trust in ideas and tools and art that is outside time. Let us do our best to live in that space too, rejoicing, as Marcus said, quoting a 5th century poet named Empedocles, "existing in perfect, timeless stillness." That's what I think is so amazing about Meditations, of course, is that it is this timeless but totally timely bit of advice. My copy is 20 years old now, but it feels just as fresh as when I first cracked it.

• 3:36Ryan Holiday?

  The only thing that's struggled to keep up is the physical book itself. We've got this new awesome leather bound edition. You've heard me talking about it. You can check that out at store.dailystoic.com. I'll link to it in today's show notes. Makes a great gift also, but it's what I have now on my bedside table.

• 4:04Speaker 02

  Epictetus.

• 4:07Speaker 02

  If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid.

• 4:15Speaker 02

  Don't just say that you have read books. Show that through them, you have learned to think better.

• 4:26Speaker 02

  I cannot escape death, but at least I can escape the fear of it.

• 4:35Speaker 02

  Don't explain your philosophy, embody it.

• 4:42Speaker 02

  You become what you give your attention to.

• 4:47Speaker 02

  It's impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

• 4:55Speaker 02

  If you are ever tempted to look for outside approval, realize that you have compromised your integrity. If you need a witness, be your own.

• 5:09Speaker 02

  How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?

• 5:18Speaker 02

  If your choices are beautiful, so too will you be.

• 5:25Speaker 02

  If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.

• 5:36Speaker 02

  It's not things that upset us, but our judgments about things.

• 5:44Speaker 02

  Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself.

• 5:53Speaker 02

  Welcome events in whichever way they happen. This is the path to peace.

• 6:01Speaker 02

  The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.

• 6:12Speaker 02

  The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

• 6:26Speaker 02

  No man is free who is not master of himself.

• 6:33Speaker 02

  The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.

• 6:42Speaker 02

  You are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be.

• 6:48Speaker 02

  Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

• 6:56Speaker 02

  Seek not the good in external things, seek it in yourselves.

• 7:04Speaker 02

  Curb your desire. Don't set your heart on so many things, and you will get what you need.

• 7:15Speaker 02

  Devote the rest of your life to making progress.

• 7:23Ryan Holiday?

  I hope you like this video. I hope you subscribe. But what I really want you to subscribe to is our Daily Stoic email. One bit of Stoic wisdom, totally for free, to the largest community of Stoics ever in existence. You can sign up at dailystoic.com/email. There's no spam. You can unsubscribe at any time. I love sending it. I've sent it every day for the last six years. And I hope to see you there at dailystoic.com/email.