This Is How To Direct Your Life

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1:26This is how to direct your life. From Zeno to Marcus Aurelius, the works of nearly every Stoic features the repetition of four words, four virtues that go to the core of the philosophy, courage, temperance, justice, and wisdom. We hear in meditations Marcus Aurelius speaking of epithets for the self, watchwords for his life. That's what these virtues are supposed to be, like cardinal points on a compass. They're supposed to direct us, guide us, point us in the right direction. As Zeno taught, these virtues are at once inseparable, but yet distinct and different from one another. What good is courage if not in pursuit of justice?

2:10And how can we know what is just without wisdom? and without temperance and self-discipline, how will we have the strength both to acquire wisdom and to apply courage? So in 2019, I started working on a series of books about the Stoic virtues. I started with Courage is Calling, which was followed by Discipline is Destiny and then Right Thing Right Now. And I tried to bring these virtues to life through stories about people like Socrates and Florence Nightingale and Frederick Douglass and Toni Morrison and Epictetus and Harvey Milk, just to name a few. And I've, of course, been tested in my own life about them, first living through a global pandemic, as we all did, then trying to balance my work and raising a family.

2:55And then most recently, when my lecture on wisdom at the Naval Academy was canceled in an example of, I guess what you would call political interference. What was the right thing to do? What would Zeno or Marcus or Epictetus or James Stockdale advise? When do you stand firm in your principles? When do you let something go? Of course, this is what virtue is about, and ultimately also where the fourth and final virtue comes in, because it's wisdom that helps us answer these kinds of questions. It's wisdom that helps us find what Aristotle calls the golden mean between two vices. It's wisdom that tells us when to apply courage, the midpoint between cowardice and recklessness.

3:36It's wisdom that finds the line between good and evil, right and wrong, fair and unfair, ethical and unethical. As I said earlier, the four virtues are like the cardinal directions, the main points on a compass, north and south and east and west. They guide us, directing us through life's day-to-day choices and challenges. And to keep the metaphor going, wisdom is what calibrates that compass, ensures that it's pointing true north, that we're not heading confidently in the right direction. And certainly no one is born wise. No one was ever wise by chance, Seneca said. It comes haphazard to no man.

4:17No, it takes commitment. It takes study. It takes reflection. It takes experience. And most of all, it takes work. And that was my goal in writing this series on the Stoic virtues. I wasn't just writing a collection of random books, but to try to create an interlocking system, interrelated, distinct, yet inseparable books on these cardinal virtues that have guided philosophers and leaders for centuries. And as you know, the new book, Wisdom Takes Work, is coming out in October, but we wanted to create a package of them all together. So the publishers put together this limited run, 1 ,500, four book sets, special edition of all four books, a special title page that's numbered.

5:01I've signed each one. As I said, it's a super limited edition of them. We're only going to have these 1 ,500 and then we'll sell out. If you want that collector set, you can grab that. I'll link to that in today's show notes, dailystoic.com slash Stoke Virtues. I'll also give you a note card from the writing of the book, which I'm just going through now as I'm finishing up the bibliography. You'll get a bunch of other awesome stuff. I'll give you the intro right now. You'll get some bonus chapters. As I said, the annotated bibliography. You can even listen to the songs that I listen to while writing the book.

5:34A bunch of other awesome bonuses, all of that at dailystoic.com slash stoicvirtues. I'm really excited for you to not just read the fourth book, but any of the books if you haven't read them yet. Courage is calling discipline's destiny the right thing right now. And now wisdom takes work all together in a four book limited edition set numbered signed dailystoic.com slash stoic virtues. Enjoy.

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