The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living

by Ryan Holiday

Let’s not confuse acceptance with passivity.

Acceptance isn’t passive. It’s the first step in an active process toward self-improvement.

Our faults are in our control, and so we turn to philosophy to help scrape them off like barnacles from the hull of a ship. Other people’s faults? Not so much. That’s for them to do.

Perhaps today will be the day when we experience happiness or wisdom. Don’t try to grab that moment and hold on to it with all your might. It’s not under your control how long it lasts. Enjoy it, recognize it, remember it.

Attachments to an image you have of a person, attachments to wealth and status, attachments to a certain place or time, attachments to a job or to a lifestyle. All of those things are dangerous for one reason: they are outside of our reasoned choice. How long we keep them is not in our control.

Tempting as it is to deceive yourself or hide from a powerful emotion like grief—by telling yourself and other people that you’re fine—awareness and understanding are better.

A philosopher, on the other hand, knows that their default state should be one of reflection and inner awareness.

The next time you feel yourself getting high and mighty—or conversely, feeling low and inferior—just remember, we all end up the same way. In death, no one is better, no one is worse. All our stories have the same finale.

You don’t get a prize at the end of your life for having consumed more, worked more, spent more, collected more, or learned more about the various vintages than everyone else. You are just a conduit, a vessel that temporarily held or interacted with these fancy items.

we don’t receive a short life, we make it so.”

if you find yourself rushed or uttering the words “I just don’t have enough time,” stop and take a second. Is this actually true? Or have you just committed to a lot of unnecessary things?

You can take the bite out of any tough situation by bringing a calm mind to it. By considering it and meditating on it in advance.

act deliberately for good reasons and not carelessly

Epictetus says when we want something outside our control, we are stricken with anxiety (Discourses 2.13.1). Our judgments about what is up to us determine our freedom (3.26.34–35).

The Stoics part ways with any tragic thinking, on the one hand, and, on the other, with any notion of original sin—all sin is the result of bad habit, following common opinion, and bad judgments.

Stoics were compatibilists about the free will and determinism question—all things are determined, but our response is entirely our own.

“Freedom isn’t secured by filling up on your heart’s desire but by removing your desire.”

we must accept fate and seek to correct our own faults rather than blame others or the gods