Don’t Be A Snob

Because of the work we’ve done. Because of the study. Because of the experiences. We know. We know what’s right. We know what’s possible. We know how things should go. The problem, as we’ve said before, is that it’s very easy to forget that the Stoics believed only in *self-*discipline.📗 Go to store.dailystoic.com/pages/discipline to order your copy of Discipline Is Destiny: The Power Of Self-Control.✉️ 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.

• 0:30Ryan Holiday?

  Don't be a snob. Because of the work we've done, because of the study, because of the experiences, we know. We know what's right. We know what's possible. We know how things should go. The problem, as we've said before, is that it's very easy to forget that the Stoics believed only in self-discipline. In F. Scott Fitzgerald's wonderful short story, "The Four Fists," which we wrote about recently for very different reasons, Fitzgerald has a scene where a particularly distinguished young gentleman gets in an argument with a short-tempered, but otherwise decent workman. In the end, the workman bristles at being judged and attacks the gentleman, which serves as a well-deserved wake-up call for a guy who had long been convinced

• 1:12Ryan Holiday?

  of his superiority to everyone else. "Eventually, this mistake about the workman influenced his entire attitude," Fitzgerald writes. "Snobbishness is, after all, merely good breeding grown dictatorial. So Samuel's code remained, but the necessity of imposing it upon others had faded out in a certain gutter." We should take note that the Stoics repeatedly spoke against taking on errors. Xeno and Epictetus's best one-liners are about puncturing the pretensions of their students. "And Marcus Aurelius was beloved," one historian writes, "because his strictness was limited solely to himself." It's great that you've done this work. It's great that you've learned so much.

• 1:57Ryan Holiday?

  It's great that you have a strong code and set of standards. That doesn't give you the right to lord it over anyone else. It's your code. It's for self-discipline. And we forget this at our peril.

• 2:11Ryan Holiday?

  You know, Discipline is Destiny is about discipline, but that very specific kind of discipline, self-discipline, it's about the power of self-control. And often when I sign the book, and I've been signing a bunch of them for the holidays, I underline self a couple of times. It's self-discipline. This isn't about lording yourself, your standards, your stoicism about other people. It's about being the master of yourself. That's what the book is about. I really hope you check it out if you haven't already. It's been selling like crazy, more than 60% up over Courage, which has just blown me away. So, thank you to everyone who's read it and supported the book. In the meantime, if you haven't read it, I'd love for you to check it out. You can get signed copies at store.dailystoic.com. You can pick them up at the Painted Porch or anywhere books are sold, including on Audible.

• 2:55Ryan Holiday?

  I'll link to that in today's show notes. But I do hope you check out the new book and thank you for listening.