Not Through Me. Not Through Me.

We must stand firm, unyielding in our refusal to compromise on what we know is right.🎙️ Follow The Daily Stoic Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoicpodcast🎥 Watch top moments from The Daily Stoic Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dailystoicpodcast✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and 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.

• 0:05Ryan Holiday?

  Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a Stoic-inspired meditation, designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life. Each one of these episodes is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women, help you learn from them, to follow in their example, and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom. For more, visit DailyStoic.com.

• 0:56Ryan Holiday?

  "Not through me, not through me." We don't control what other people do. We don't control that they lie. We don't control that they abuse power. We don't control that they cheat on their spouses. We don't control that they attack or persecute. We don't control that they spread misinformation. But we certainly control whether we do those things, or rather, that we don't do those things. Alexander Solzhenitsyn lived through terrible tyranny, and he refused to let it corrupt him. He knew that it was impossible for an individual to fight against pervasive evil and corruption. But still, he said, "Our duty was simple. Our credo must be, 'Let the lie come into the world,'" he said, "let it even triumph, but not through me." This is Cato during the last days of the Republic.

• 1:41Ryan Holiday?

  This is Rutilius and Musonius and Agrippinus as they face down the power of the state. This is Stockdale and the Hanoi Hilton. It can also be us in this moment, whatever the future holds. We must resist the moral inversion that celebrates selfishness and rewards dishonesty. We must resist the cultural forces that encourage cruelty, that degrade truth. We must stand firm, unyielding in our refusal to compromise on what we know is right. We do this personally, by insisting on what's right, by acting right, by living with virtues. Others will do what they will. We will not.