# The Daily Stoic  ## Metadata - Author: [[Ryan Holiday, Stephen Hanselman]] - Full Title: The Daily Stoic - Category: #books ## Highlights - Before lunch, remind yourself that the only thing you truly possess is your ability to make choices (and to use reason and judgment when doing so). This is the only thing that can never be taken from you completely. ([Location 331](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=331)) - While everyone else is running around with a list of responsibilities a mile long—things they’re not actually responsible for—you’ve got just that one-item list. You’ve got just one thing to manage: your choices, your will, your mind. So mind it. ([Location 348](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=348)) - just born this way.” “I never learned anything different.” “My parents set a terrible example.” “Everyone else does it.” What are these? Excuses that people use to justify staying as they are instead of striving to become better. ([Location 2647](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=2647)) - Those who pick things up quickly are notorious for skipping the basic lessons and ignoring the fundamentals. Don’t get carried away. Take it slow. Train with humility. ([Location 2850](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=2850)) - he answer to the question “Why did you do the right thing?” should always be “Because it was the right thing to do.” ([Location 2857](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=2857)) - you must not abandon those other folks either. Don’t simply write them off or leave them in the dust. Don’t get mad or fight with them. After all, they’re at the same place you were not long ago. ([Location 2886](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=2886)) - “As Plato said, every soul is deprived of truth against its will. The same holds true for justice, self-control, goodwill to others, and every similar virtue. It’s essential to constantly keep this in your mind, for it will make you more gentle to all.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 7.63 ([Location 2903](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=2903)) - Do not take the slights of the day personally—or the exciting rewards and recognitions either, especially when duty has assigned you an important cause. Trivial details like the rise and fall of your position say nothing about you as a person. Only your behavior—as Cato’s did—will. ([Location 2965](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=2965)) - “The more you say,” Robert Greene has written, “the more likely you are to say something foolish.” To that we add: the more you say, the more likely you are to blow past opportunities, ignore feedback, and cause yourself suffering. ([Location 3143](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=3143)) - the only contest the good person enters is that of their own reasoned choice. How can such a person not be invincible?” ([Location 3313](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=3313)) - Truth stands open to everyone, it hasn’t been monopolized.” —SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 33.11 Traditions are often time-tested best practices for doing something. But remember that today’s conservative ideas were once controversial, cutting-edge, and innovative. This is why we can’t be afraid to experiment with new ideas. ([Location 3408](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=3408)) - “No person has the power to have everything they want, but it is in their power not to want what they don’t have, and to cheerfully put to good use what they do have.” —SENECA, MORAL LETTERS, 123.3 ([Location 3462](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=3462)) - “Whenever you take offense at someone’s wrongdoing, immediately turn to your own similar failings, such as seeing money as good, or pleasure, or a little fame—whatever form it takes. By thinking on this, you’ll quickly forget your anger, considering also what compels them—for what else could they do? Or, if you are able, remove their compulsion.” —MARCUS AURELIUS, MEDITATIONS, 10.30 ([Location 3488](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=3488)) - judge you unfortunate because you have never lived through misfortune. You have passed through life without an opponent—no one can ever know what you are capable of, not even you.” —SENECA, ON PROVIDENCE ([Location 3541](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=3541)) - As tough as those periods were, they were ultimately formative experiences. They made those people who they are. ([Location 3548](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=3548)) - None of these men broke. No one could make them sacrifice their principles. That’s the thing—someone can throw you in chains, but they don’t have the power to change who you are. ([Location 3581](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=3581)) - It is when times are good that you should gird yourself for tougher times ahead, for when Fortune is kind the soul can build defenses against her ravages. ([Location 3637](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=3637)) - But if you are already humble, no one will need to humble you—and the world is much less likely to have nasty surprises in store for you. ([Location 3678](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=3678)) - Fooling with books so you can sound smart or have an intimidating library is like tending a garden to impress your neighbors. Growing one to feed a family? That’s a pure and profitable use of your time. The seeds of Stoicism are long underground. Do the work required to nurture and tend to them. So that they—and you—are prepared and sturdy for the hard winters of life. ([Location 3717](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=3717)) - “Nature is merciful,” he later wrote in a newspaper article about the experience, “and does not try her children, man or beast, beyond their compass. It is only where the cruelty of man intervenes that hellish torments appear. For the rest—live dangerously; take things as they come; dread naught, all will be well.” ([Location 3762](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=3762)) - “Better to trip with the feet than with the tongue.” —ZENO, QUOTED IN DIOGENES LAERTIUS, LIVES OF THE EMINENT PHILOSOPHERS, 7.1.26 ([Location 4007](https://readwise.io/to_kindle?action=open&asin=B01HNJIJB2&location=4007))