The Daily Stoic - This Is All There Is | 10 Stoic Quotes That Will Motivate You To Seize The Day

Episode Date: July 11, 2023

It’s one of the great moments in the history of comedy. At Comedy Central Presents: The Roast of Bob Saget, the comedian Norm Macdonald is up roasting his friend, Bob Saget and the rest of the panel. Yet instead of doing what nearly every other comedian has done in the history of roasts, Norm goes on stage and basically bombs on purpose, telling a series of inane and mediocre jokes that he may or may not have stolen from an old joke book.It’s worth watching if only for the courage and self-discipline that this artistic statement must have taken.---And in today's Daily Stoic video excerpt, Ryan shares ten quotes from the Stoics that will give you the boost you need when you're feeling a lack of motivation.✉️ 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.

Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we read a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you in your everyday life. On Tuesdays, we take a closer look at these stoic ideas, how we can apply them in our actual lives. Thanks for listening, and I hope you enjoy. This is all there is. It's one of the great moments in the history of comedy. And Comedy Central presents the roast of Bob Sackett, the comedian, Norm McDonald, is up roasting his friend Bob Sackett in the rest of the panel. Yet instead of doing what nearly every comedian has done in the history of

roasts, Norm goes on stage and basically bombs on purpose, telling the series of a name and mediocre jokes that he may or may not have stolen from an old joke book. It's worth watching, if only for the courage in the self-discipline that this artistic statement must have taken, the audience is confused. They're laughter trailing off to almost nothing as the set seems to go worse and worse. His friends on the day, us all professional comedians, are nervous with discomfort, empathizing with what seems like the thing that all performers dread, just not having it that night. All the momentum of the row seems to disappear.

Indeed, it's almost like time begins to move excruciatingly slow as norm performs flawless but terrible comedy over the next eight plus minutes. Yet throughout it all, he never breaks character. He ignores the audience. He just goes on making whatever point he intended to make with this performance. He never doubts himself. He doesn't pull the rip cord and change to something that might land better. He manages to never betray anything but complete seriousness and total commitment, which paid off only later in the many post-show viewings when people started to realize what a meta-performance this was. It was funny precisely because it wasn't funny. But what's also interesting is that only two people on the day,

Bob Sagitt and Gilbert Gottfried, seemed to understand and appreciate the brilliance. Although nervous about the High Wire Act that their friend is pulling, they laugh and amazement throughout the set. It's also interesting and tragic that these three men, Bob Sagitt, Gilbert Gottfried, and Norm Mcdonald would all die within six months of each other. And two other comedians on stage that night, Greg Gerardo and Chloris Leachman, the actress, also die.

It caused to mind Marcus really is his observation about how everything is transitory, the knower, and the known, the ones who got the joke are gone, and so are the ones who didn't, even the guy who made it. It's gone. So what is it then? What matters? What lasts? Just the moment, a moment of joy, a moment of artistic expression and innovation, a moment

of discipline and self-control, a moment of bravery. Marcus really has said that all this was transitory, but he also said that it was plenty. That in afternoon or in evening, our handful of seconds of it was enough. And it is. It's all there is. Hi, I'm David Brown, the host of Wondery's podcast business wars. And in our new season, two of the world's leading hotel brands, Hilton and Marriott, stare down family drama and financial disasters. Listen to business wars on Amazon Music or

wherever you get your podcasts. The whole point of studying philosophy, Senika said, was to become a better person. And if you're not becoming better, if you're not growing and improving these issues, if you're not acquiring things that fortify you against death and poverty and disaster and fear and extreme emotions, then you're doing something wrong. That's what's so amazing about stoicism. That's what it does. It did it for Seneca.

It did it for Mark Srealis. It did it for me. I'm Ryan Holliday. I've written these books about stoic philosophy. I've been lucky enough to talk about it to the NBA and the NFL, sitting senators and special forces leaders. In today's episode, I want to give you 10 life-changing Stoic quotes. Stoic quotes that will make you a better human being, whoever you are, whatever it is that you do. My friend Steven Presfield talks about the resistance, the thing that gets in between us and what we want to do. He says, nobody says I'm never going to write my symphony. He says I'm going to do it tomorrow.

Omar just really struggles with the resistance too, like all of us do. He says you could be good today instead you choose tomorrow. We put it off. And actually, Seneca says something similar. He says the one thing fools all have in common is that they're always getting ready to begin. So the point for Marcus was that you do it now. Not later, you do it now. And one of his letters, Seneca, says that we preep the body rigorously so that it would not be disobedient to the mind.

And I think about that when I'm jumping in the shower, jumping in a cold pool, whether I'm pushing myself, or I'm running or lifting weights, is like, I'm reminding the body, fuzin chart. This idea that we treat the body rigorously, that that that's what the physical practice is. It's a reminder of fuzin chart. It's the mind asserting itself over the body. We tend to think of philosophers as these sort of soft people, but actually the mental practice, the mental resilience being in charge of yourself is the ultimate muscle that you want to cultivate and it's the thing that every great athlete has to have. The whole thing boils down to this one idea. There's some stuff that's up to us and some stuff

that's not up to us. Epictetus says, our chief task in life is, is this up to me, or is this not up to me? And I know that seems really basic, but the truth is most of us, most people spend most of their time on stuff that's not up to them, right? We complain about stuff, we wish stuff was otherwise,

we spent our time worrying about the future or regretting the past, and none of that is energy spent towards what we actually control Which is right now what's right in front of us? So that's the idea is this up to me is it's not up to me and this dichotomy of control as this to Xay What really the dichotomy of control is about is resource allocation are you gonna spend your time and energy on things that are up to you But things that are not up to you every second you spend on something that's not up to you, is wasted, and at least if you spend it on something

that's up to you, it might make a difference. The best revenge is to not be like that, the Stokes would say. And if you think about it, yes, people can hurt you, but when you look at those people, who they are, why they do what they do, it doesn't actually feel like they're getting away with anything, they're their own worst enemy. It sucks to be them.

So the Stokes say, you give up on Revenge, you give up on getting even because you already won. You are already better by not being that person. The best revenge Mark Sreo says is to not be like that. And it is inevitable that we will fall short. Marcus did, I do, everyone does. Antoninus Pius probably did too, which is why in Meditations, Marcus really says, to pick yourself back up when you fall, but he also says to celebrate the fact that you're a human

being. What matters, he says, is that you come back to the rhythm of it. We're going to be jarred by circumstances. We're going to be messed up. We're going to jarred by circumstances. We're gonna be messed up. We're gonna slip on our diet, on our New Year's resolution, on the progress we were making. That's okay.

What matters is that you get back up. What matters is that more often than not, you stick to it, that you always come back home to it. I'm not gonna say that. I'm not gonna say that. I'm not gonna say that. I'm not gonna say that. I'm not gonna say that. I'm not gonna say that. I'm not gonna say that. I'm not gonna say that. come to it. At one point in meditation, Mark is really says avoid false friendship at all costs. Says nothing is more painful, nothing is worse.

And he knows this from experience. I tell in obstacle is the way the story of Mark is being betrayed by a videos casus is most trusted general one of his best friends he declares himself emperor essentially attempts to orchestrate a coup. Marcus really is new that although we wanted to be trusting people although we wanted to assume the best in people we had to understand that people were not perfect people could be led astray people could have evil intentions in their heart we have to be aware of this we

have to be prepared for it. It's actually in book six that I found the meditation that I would build my own first book of stoke philosophy around. Marcus says, the impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way. He says, look, stuff can get in the way you can be impeded. He says, but nothing can impede your intentions or your dispositions. He says, the mind can convert to its own purpose is the obstacle to our act. That's the power of

stoicism that we always have the opportunity to practice a virtue. We don't choose where we are. We don't choose what's happening, but we choose how we respond to what's happening. We can choose to use this moment. whatever that is for you, we can use it as a chance to be our best selves. My friend emailed me on a Friday. I saw it. I told myself I was going to respond on Monday, and by Sunday, he was gone.

He'd fallen dead of a heart attack. And this is why the Stoics practice momentum more. Life is short. You can go at any moment. You could leave life right now as Marcus is, but also they could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think. The people who are precious to you, you do not possess them.

You can't take them for granted. You can't assume they're going to be here forever. You can't assume you're always going to have them. You don't have them now. They are here on loan. They are here under shaky status at best. So you can't take people for granted. You can't take time for granted. You can't go to bed angry as they say. You can't hold on to grudges. Be with them now while you can.

Forgive them now while you can. Appreciate them now while you can. Enjoy them now while you can. That's the only thing we can do. You have two ears and one mouth, Zeno says, for good reason. You're supposed to talk less than you listen. You're supposed to listen more than you talk. The stokes believe that conceit, that arrogance was the impediment to all knowledge. And we're talking about this in the daily stoke today.

You can't learn that what you think you already know. If your cup is already full, nothing more can come inside of it. If you're always talking, you can't hear what other people are saying. So for the Stoke, humility was the key. If conceit was the enemy, humility was the key. Ego is the enemy, but humility, openness, quietness, listening, that was the way forward, that was how you grew, that's how you get better. The Stoics believed in this idea of sympathy, that there was this whole, this collective we're in. Mark Sirea's talks about the common good, not like once or twice, but dozens and dozens of times. He believed that, yeah, he was a Roman and

yes, he was the head of the Roman Empire, but all human beings were connected, that all human beings shared an affinity, and a relationship, and an obligation to each other. In book 654, he says, what injures the hive, injures the bee. What's bad for the hive, is bad for the bee, what's bad for the bee, is bad for the hive. And this was a time of such immense cruelty and selfishness, and in behind. And this was a time of such immense cruelty and selfishness and indifference to what was happening elsewhere. Marcus really is saying, no, your job as a human being is to care about other human beings, not just the ones immediately nearest to you or related to you, but ones you'll never know, ones you'll never meet, ones who have never even been born. Stoicism does not make you a sociopath. If anything, it makes you care more about more people.

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