Mark Your Exit With Grace

Today marks the anniversary of the death of one of humanity’s greatest specimens. On March 17th, 180, in what is now modern day Vienna, Emperor Marcus Aurelius breathed his last breath and died. We don’t know exactly what his last words were. Cassius Dio claims that Marcus spoke his last sentence to his guard, saying to him, “Go to the rising sun, for I am setting.” Given the incredible legacy of the man, these words ring somewhat insufficiently.✉️ 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, including the Premium Leather Edition of the Gregory Hays translation of Meditations.📱 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.

• 0:29Ryan Holiday?

  Mark your exit with grace. Today marks the anniversary of the death of one of humanity's greatest specimens. On March 17th, the year 180 AD, in what is now modern-day Vienna, Emperor Marcus Aurelius breathed his last breath and died. We don't know exactly what his last words are. Cassius Dio claims that Marcus spoke his last sentence to his guards, saying to him, "Go to the rising sun, for I am setting." Given the incredible legacy of the man, these words ring somewhat inefficiently. Instead, we should remember Marcus's last writing as his last words, because this simple paragraph, which concludes his famous meditations, reads as if the man wrote it

• 1:14Ryan Holiday?

  as he faced the very real and immediate end of his existence, and therefore stands as inspiration and solace to all of us living today. "You lived as a citizen in a great city," he wrote, "five years or 100. What's the difference? The laws make no distinction." "And to be sent away from it, not by a tyrant or a dishonest judge, but by nature, who first invited you in, why is this so terrible? Like the impresario ringing down the curtain on an actor, but I've only gotten through three acts." "Yes," he writes, "this will be a drama in three acts, the length fixed by the power that directed your creation and now directs your dissolution. Neither was yours to determine.

• 1:58Ryan Holiday?

  So make your exit with grace, the same grace shown to you."

• 2:05Ryan Holiday?

  That's actually Gregory Hayes's masterful translation, which I love more than any of the others. It's actually the one in the leather edition that I'm holding in my hands right now, which we published here at Daily Stoic. And on Marcus Aurelius's anniversary of his death, not a bad day to remind you to pick that up. If you haven't read it already, you can check it out at dailystoic.com/leather or at store.dailystoic.com. I'll link to it in today's show notes. It's just a beautiful book, a miracle that it survives to us, and my honor to bring to you in this premium, high-end edition, which now also sits on my bedstand. And I was just flipping through last night myself.

• 2:50Ryan Holiday?

  Enjoy.