The Daily Stoic - Is Virtue All that is Needed for Happiness?

Episode Date: March 12, 2023

Today, Ryan presents the second and third of six readings of Cicero's Stoic Paradoxes. Cicero was considered Rome’s greatest politician, and he has survived as one of history’s most enduring chroniclers of Stoic philosophy and the Stoics themselves. As Ryan explains in Lives of the Stoics, these paradoxes are designed to question commonly held beliefs in order to promote reflection and discussion. In his second and third paradox, Cicero interrogates the ideas that “virtue is sufficient for happiness” and “all vices and all virtues are equal,” respectively.✉️  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.

Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic Podcast early and add free on Amazon Music. Download the app today. Welcome to the weekend edition of the Daily Stoic Podcast. On Sundays, we take a deeper dive into these ancient topics with excerpts from the Stoic texts, from the Stoic texts, audio books that we like here recommend here at Daily Stoic, and other long form wisdom that you can chew on on this relaxing weekend. We hope this helps shape your understanding of this philosophy and most importantly that you're able to apply it to actual life. Thank you for listening. Hey, it's Ryan Holiday. Welcome to another episode of the Daily Stoic podcast. I'm going to read you something from lives of the Stoics here real fast. Because it ties in to what we are talking about today. So Cicero is one of the most interesting writers about the Stoics, as you know, not the greatest practitioner,

but if it were not for Cicero, we would not have so much of the Stoic writings. So this is what I write in Lives of the Stoics. In 46 BC, Cicero published the Stoic Paradoxes, dedicated to Marcus Brudus, who himself had Stoic leanings. And what was a more rhetorical exercise than a serious philosophical treatment?

He explored six of the primary Stoic Paradoxes. Number one, that virtue is the only good. Number two, that it is sufficient for happiness. Three, that all vices and virtues are equal. Four, that all fools are mad. Five, that only the sage is truly fear, free. And six, that the wise person alone is rich. And these are not paradoxes in the logical sense,

only that they flew in the face of common sense. And it's the counterintuitiveness of each of these ideas that the stoics leaned on to catch people's attention. How can virtue be the only good if we need health and money to live? Is a lie really as bad as killing someone? Plenty of philosophers were visibly poor. How were they rich?

Basically, there's endless possibilities of discussions for discussion here, counter examples for Gacha moments. And sister-reloved, noodling with the prompts that had been laid down by Zeno, and Clienti's, and Aristo, and all the early Stoics. And that's what we're gonna be talking about in today's episode. We have Stoic, paradoxes number two,

and three for you to noodle on and listen to. And I'm excited to bring you that. Enjoy. The Dell Technologies Black Friday in July event is on with limited quantity deals on top business PCs with Windows 11 Pro. Save on select Vostro laptops with built-in OS recovery fingerprint readers and antivirus protections.

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Never, for my part, did I imagine Marcus Regulus to have been distressed or unhappy or wretched? Because his magnanimity was not tortured by the Carthaginians, Nor was the weight of his authority, nor his honor, nor was his resolution, nor was one of his virtues, nor in short did his soul suffer their torments. For a soul with the guard and retinue of so many virtues never surely could be taken, though his body was made captive. We have seen Chius Marius, he, in my opinion, was in prosperity one of the happiest and in adversity one of the greatest of men, then which man can have no happier lot.

Thou knowest not, foolish man, thou knowest not, what power virtue possesses, Thou only usurpest the name of virtue, Thou art a stranger to her influence. No man who is wholly consistent within himself and who reposes all his interests in himself alone can be otherwise then completely happy. But the man whose every hope in scheme and design depends upon fortune such a man can have no certainty can possess nothing ashore to him as destined to continue for a single day. If you have any such man in your power, you may terrify him by threats of death or exile, but whatever can happen to me in so ungrateful a country will find me not only not opposing,

but even not refusing it. To what purpose have I toiled? To what purpose have I acted? Or on what have my cares and meditations been watchfully employed, if I have produced and arrived at no such results, as that neither the outrage is a fortune, nor the injuries of enemies can shatter me? Do you threaten me with death which is separating me from mankind, or with exile which is removing me from the wicked? Death is dreadful to the man who's all is extinguished with his life, but not to him whose glory can never die. Exile is terrible to those who have, as it were, a circumscribed habitation, but not to those who look upon the whole globe but as one city. Troubles and miseries oppress thee who thinketh thyself happy and prosper us.

Thy lusts torment thee, day and night thou art upon the rack, for whom that which thou possessed is not sufficient, and who art ever trembling, lest even that should not continue. The consciousness of thy misdeeds tortures thee, the terrors of the laws and the dread of justice, upall the, Look where thou wilt, thy crimes, like so many furies, Meet thy view and suffer thee not to breathe. Therefore, as no man can be happy if he is wicked, foolish or indolent, So no man can be wretched if he is virtuous, brave and wise. Glorious is the life of that man whose virtues and practice are praiseworthy, nor indeed ought that life to be escaped from, which is deserving of praise,

though it might well be if it were a wretched one. We are therefore to look upon whatever is worthy of praise as at once happy, prosperous, and desirable. Life can get you down. I'm no stranger to that. When I find things are piling up, I'm struggling to deal with something. Obviously I use my journal, obviously I turn to stosism, but I also turn to my therapist, which I've had for a long time and has helped me through a bunch of stuff.

Because I'm so busy and I live out in the country, I do therapy remote, so I don't have to drive somewhere. And that's where today's sponsor comes in. Toxbase makes it easy to find a therapist that you like. It's convenient. It's affordable. By doing everything online, Toxbase makes getting the help you want easy and affordable, so why wait?

And Toxbase can help with any specific challenge you might be facing. That's why it's the number one online therapy platform with license therapists and over 40 specialties. It's secure and private and in network with most major insurers. As a listener of this podcast you can get 80 bucks off your first month with Toxbase when you go to Toxbase.com. So I stoic to match with a license therapist today and go to Toxbase talkspace.com-stoic to get 80 bucks off your first month and show your support for the daily stoic, that's talkspace.com-stoic. Paradox 3. That all misdeeds are in themselves equal, and good deeds the same. The matter it may be said is a trifle, but the crime is enormous, for crimes are not to be measured by the issue of events, but from the bad intentions of men. The fact in which the sin consists may be greater in one instance and less in another,

but guilt itself, in whatsoever light you behold behold it is the same. A pilot oversees a ship laden with gold or one laden with straw. In value there is some difference but in the ignorance of the pilot there is none. Your illicit desire has fallen upon an obscure female. The mortification affects fewer persons than if it had been broken out in the case of some high-born and noble virgin. Nevertheless, it has been guilty. If it be guilty to overstep the mark.

When you have done this, a crime has been committed. Nor does it matter an aggravation of the fault how far you run afterward. Certainly, it is not lawful for anyone to commit sin, and that which is unlawful is limited by this sole condition, that it is shown to be wrong. If this guilt can either be made greater nor less, because if the thing was unlawful, their in sin was committed, then the vicious acts which spring out of that, which is ever one and the same, must necessarily be equal. Now if virtues are equal among themselves, it must necessarily follow that vices are so likewise, and it is most easy to be perceived

that a man cannot be better than good, more temperate than temperate, braver than brave, nor wiser than wise. Will any man call a person honest, who having a deposit of 10 pounds of gold made to him without any witness, so that he might take advantage of it with impunity, shall restore it, and yet should not do the same in the case of ten thousand pounds? Can a man be accounted temperate, who checks one inordinate passion, and gives a loose to another. Virtue is uniform, comfortable to reason, and of unvering consistency.

Nothing can be added to it that make it more than virtue. Nothing can be taken from it and the name of virtue be left. If good offices are done with an upright intention, nothing can be more upright than upright is. And therefore, it is impossible that anything should be better than what is good. It therefore follows that all vices are equal, for the obliquities of the mind are properly termed vices. Now we may infer that as all virtues are equal, therefore all good actions, when they

spring from virtues, ought to be equal likewise. And therefore it necessarily follows that evil actions springing from vices should be also equal. You borrow, says one, these views from philosophers. I was afraid you would have told me that I borrowed it from panders, but Socrates reasoned in the manner you do. By Hercules, you say well, for it is recorded that he was a learned and wise person. Meanwhile, as we are contending, not with blows, but with words, I ask you whether good In the past, we have seen the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth. In the past, we have seen the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth of the truth more conducive to the interests of human life.

For what influence is there, which can more determine from the commission of every kind of evil, then if they become sensible that there are no degrees in sin, that the crime is the same, whether they offer violence to private persons or to magistrates. That in whatever families they have gratified their elicit desire, the turpitude of their lust is the same. But someone will say, what then? Does it make no difference whether a man murders his father or his slave? If you instance these acts abstractedly, it is difficult to decide of what quality they are. If to deprive a parent of life is in itself a most heinous crime, the Sagoontines were then

parasites because they chose that their parents should die as free Freeman, rather than live as slaves. Thus a case may happen in which there may be no guilt into depriving a parent of life, and very often we cannot without guilt put a slave to death. The circumstances therefore attending this case, and not the nature of the thing, occasion the distinction. These circumstances, as they lean to either case, that case becomes the more favorable. But if they appertain alike to both, the acts are then equal. There is this difference, that in killing a slave, if wrong is done, it is a single sin that is committed, but many are involved in taking the life of a father. The object of violence is the man who begat you, the man who

fed you, the man who brought you up, the man who gave your position in your home, your family, and the state. This offense is greater by reason of the number of sins involved in it, and is deserving of a proportionately greater punishment. But in life, we are not to consider what should be the punishment of each offense, but what is the rule of right to each individual? We are to consider everything that is not becoming as wicked and everything that is unlawful as heinous. What, even in the most trifling matters, to be sure for it we're unable to regulate

the course of events, yet we may place a bound to our passions. If a player dances ever so little out of time, if a verse is pronounced by him longer or shorter by a single syllable than it ought to be, he is hooded and hissed off the stage. And shall you, who ought to be better regulated than any gesture, and more regular than any verse, shall you be found faulty, even in a syllable of conduct? I overlook the trifling faults of a poet, but shall I approve my fellow citizens' life while he is counting his misdeeds with his fingers? If some of these are trifling, how can it be regarded as more venial when whatever wrong is committed is committed to the violation of reason and order?

Now, if reason and order are violated, nothing can be added by which the offense can seem to be aggravated. Thanks for listening to the Daily Stoke Podcast. Just a reminder, we've got signed copies of all my books in the Daily Stoke Store. You can get them personalized, you can get them sent to a friend. The app goes away. You go as the enemy, stillness is the key.

The leatherbound edition of the Daily Stoke, we have them all in the Daily Stoke Store, which you can check out at store.dailystoke.com. Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts. Ah, the Bahamas. What if you could live in a penthouse above the crystal clear ocean working during the day and partying at night with your best friends and have it be 100% paid for? FTX Founder Sam Bankman Freed lived that dream life, but it was all funded with other

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