This is a Line Worth Remembering | A Cure For The Self

0:00Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key Stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom, into the real world.

0:14This is a line worth remembering. Have you ever read a line in a book that helps you understand life in a new way? A song lyric that nails exactly how you're feeling? A piece of advice that gives you a rule to follow in countless situations? You're not the only one. We see Marcus Aurelius do this in meditations repeatedly, quoting lines from Epictetus, from poems, from plays. And as it happens, George Washington did this too. His favorite play was Cato by Joseph Addison. This play about the Roman senator and Stoic philosopher was written in 1712. and was hugely famous in the 18th century. And Washington liked to quote one line that must have resonated with him the way certain quotes resonate with us today.

1:02Free, he said in a letter to a friend after the revolution about his return to private life, from the bustle of camp and the intrigues of court, I shall view the busy world in the calm light of mild philosophy. In fact, in a single two-week period in 1797, Washington quoted that same line, the calm light of mild philosophy. Three different letters. And later, in one of Washington's greatest but probably least known moments, when he talked down the mutinous troops who were plotting to overthrow the U.S. government at Newburgh, he quoted the same line as he urged them away from acting in anger and frustration.

1:44In the calm light of mild philosophy. That's stoicism. That's using reason to temper our impulses and our emotions. As Epictetus said, it's about putting our impressions up to the test. It's what Mark Spreles talked about when he said that our life is what our thoughts make it, that what we choose to see determines how we will feel. And we must continue this advice today. It served Cato well and Washington even better. All that we see and all that we think we see clearly should be held up to the calm light of mild philosophy so that we can see what it really is, so that we don't do anything that we regret, so we can enjoy this wonderful gift of life that we possess, whatever our station.

2:37Ryan Holiday: I'm on the road for these daily Stoic Talks I'm doing. I started in Seattle. My family and I drove all the way down. Now I'm in San Francisco. We're in Sacramento tomorrow. I've actually been booking houses on Airbnb all along the way. We stayed in this awesome one in Mendocino last night. We stayed in a lovely one on the ocean in Bremerton, Washington. It's been awesome. And that's usually how we stay as a family when we're traveling. We book houses or apartments on Airbnb. But what a lot of people don't know is that when I first started as a writer, I used to list my house on Airbnb. My first house, this little house in East Austin, we would book it out when we were out of town, which is what Airbnb is so great at.

3:13Ryan Holiday: And then when we moved out to the country, I would write at it during the week and book it out on the weekends. And that's how we helped cover the mortgage. That's how I was able to make the transition from a marketing person to a writer. Wherever you live, but especially if you live in a city that's hosting a bunch of events this summer or you're traveling, you should think about listing your house or apartment or condo on Airbnb. It might be worth more than you think. And you can find out how much at Airbnb.com slash host. We're traveling internationally this summer. And some of those places like in Europe, you know, you can't just go dress like you're slobby American.

3:50Ryan Holiday: You got to dress up a little bit. Can't show their shoulders. Can't wear shorts. So I'm going to take some of the stuff I bought from Quince because it holds up well, looks good. It's fancy without being uncomfortable. I'm going to try to pack clothes that are light, airy and comfortable. I can use them in multiple settings. you've certainly seen me in some of these things if you've ever watched a daily show video or seen me talk live i want something that looks good on stage that i'm not going to sweat through it's not going to get super wrinkled quince has got great t-shirts they've got great light sweaters and everything at quince is priced 50 to 80 percent less than similar brands they work directly with ethical factories and cut out the middlemen so you're paying for quality not brand markup.

4:33Ryan Holiday: And Quince goes way beyond clothing. They've got sofas and ceramic cookware, premium bedding. It's the kind of brand you end up recommending to everyone for everything. Elevate your summer wardrobe. Go to quince.com for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns now available in Canada too. That's quince.com for free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com slash stoic. A cure for the self. A person who has practiced philosophy as a cure for the self becomes great of soul, filled with confidence, invincible, greater as you draw near. This is Seneca's Moral Letters, 111. This is an entry from The Daily Stoic.

5:21Ryan Holiday: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living by Ryan Holiday, translated by the wonderful Steve Hanselman. You can get this anywhere books are sold. There's an audio version, physical version. There's even a special premium leather-bound edition to Daily Stoic Storage. You can check out at store.dailystoic.com. What is a cure for the self? Perhaps Seneca means that through nature and nurture, we develop a unique set of characteristics, some positive, some negative. When those negative characteristics begin to have consequences in our lives, some of us turn to therapy, psychoanalysis, with the help of a support group.

5:58Ryan Holiday: The point? To cure certain selfish, destructive parts of ourselves. But of all the avenues for curing our negative characteristics, philosophy has existed the longest and helped the most people. It is concerned not just with mitigating the effects of mental illness or neuroses, but it is designed to encourage human flourishing. It's designed to help you live the good life. Don't you deserve to flourish? Wouldn't you like to be great of soul, filled with confidence and invincible to external events? Wouldn't you like to be the proverbial onion packed with layers of greatness? Well, then practice philosophy.

6:39Ryan Holiday: That's something Seneca says. He says, what does philosophy offer? He says, philosophy offers counsel. Marcus Aurelius repeatedly compares philosophy to medicine. It's like an ointment. It reduces pain and suffering. That's what this philosophy is there for. As we said a bunch of times, go to therapy, seek medical help, go to recovery groups, be religious too. Stoicism is not mutually exclusive with anything. But all these things are designed to do what Seneca is talking about, which is the cure for the self. The more you work on yourself, the more you address the problems, the issues, the childhood wounds that you have, the better you'll be at whatever it is that you're doing.

7:21Ryan Holiday: Last year, I've, you know, I've worked on so many issues, issues with my parents, issues with my childhood, issues with, you know, compulsions or, you know, I've really found the anxiety was more of a pronounced force in my life than I wanted it to be. And so I dealt with it and I'm still dealing with it, trying to cure myself. I'm trying to get better every single day as you're trying to do. That's what we are doing here, trying to get better. That's the problem with ego or delusion. If you think you're perfect, there's nothing you're going to work on. There's no way you're going to get better.

7:55Ryan Holiday: If you think you're an irredeemable piece of crap, probably not going to get any better either. But the point is you're good, but you can be better. And if you dealt with this, if you faced that, if you explored this, if you opened up about that, what could you be capable of? How much greater could you be? Who could you be there for? What could you be capable of doing? So the cure for the self, it's not that you're broken. It's not that you're diseased, but we all have issues. And in having the courage and the discipline and the counsel of philosophy to guide us, we can make real progress at that.

8:29Ryan Holiday: When I look at who I was when I first picked up Marcus Aurelius at 19, I've cured a lot of things. I wouldn't say they're all in remission, I wouldn't say they're all perfectly gone, but I'm in remission on a lot of them. And now I'm turning to additional things, too. So that's what we're doing here. I hope you're making that progress. Hope you're not afraid to ask for help. Hope you're not afraid to look in the mirror. It gets better when you do. Talk soon.