Episode · The Daily Stoic · 2024-10-02
Ryan Holiday & Brigid Delaney: books mentioned on The Daily Stoic
Brigid Delaney’s Life Changing Year of Living Like a Stoic
Brigid Delaney was at a unique point in her life and found herself looking for answers around life’s deepest questions: What does it mean to be a good person? How do we stop letting the things out of our control rule our emotions?
Ryan Holiday recommended The inner citadel by Pierre Hadot, and discussed The Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto with Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Lucius Verus, Antoninus Pius, and Various Friends by Marcus Cornelius Fronto and On the Shortness of Life. Brigid Delaney recommended Dying Every Day by James Romm and The Therapy of Desire by Martha C. Nussbaum, and discussed Meditations by Aurelius Marcus, Moral letters to Lucilius, and On Anger by Aubrey Stewart and others.
Books mentioned, in the order they came up
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The Correspondence of Marcus Cornelius Fronto with Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Lucius Verus, Antoninus Pius, and Various Friends
Discussed“I thought I'd start in the nerdiest place possible: have you read Marcus's letters to Fronto? You know who Fronto is? The love letters?”
Where to get it
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Meditations
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius is a collection of personal journals and philosophical notes written by the Roman emperor during his military campaigns, offering profound insights into Stoic philosophy, self-discipline, and personal endurance.
Discussed“Yeah, I mean, Marcus Aurelius's book is called Meditations. It's a different form of meditation”
Where to get it
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The inner citadel
The Inner Citadel by Pierre Hadot is a celebrated philosophical study examining the spiritual exercises and foundational meditations of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius.
Recommended“and then I went back to p p Hado who did did this great um did this kind of great sort of introduction as to how to read meditation this is the inner Citadel right”
Where to get it
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Dying Every Day
Dying Every Day by James Romm is a historical account examining how the Roman philosopher Seneca became entangled with Emperor Nero and the compromises he made under a tyrannical ruler.
Recommended“I mean, there are different accounts of how culpable Seneca was. I love the James Romm book 'Dying Every Day', it's extraordinary. What I love about Seneca is his humanness; he had this ideal that he tried to reach, and the reality was working for Nero.”
Where to get it
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Moral letters to Lucilius
Moral letters to Lucilius by Seneca is a collection of philosophical epistles offering timeless Stoic wisdom on virtue, mortality, and the art of living well.
Discussed“'Letters to Lucilius' is a good example; that's addressed to someone, but you can see him working out death and grief in that work. Same with 'On the Shortness of Life'; it's an intellectual exercise and a spiritual exercise. They didn't have a pre-fitted philosophy or theology that they could live by; they had to come up with it themselves,”
Where to get it
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On the Shortness of Life
On the Shortness of Life by Seneca is a foundational Stoic philosophical essay that examines the perception of time, mortality, and the importance of mindful attention to make every minute count.
Discussed“'Letters to Lucilius' is a good example; that's addressed to someone, but you can see him working out death and grief in that work. Same with 'On the Shortness of Life'; it's an intellectual exercise and a spiritual exercise. They didn't have a pre-fitted philosophy or theology that they could live by; they had to come up with it themselves,”
Where to get it
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On Anger
On Anger by Seneca is a foundational Stoic treatise that examines the psychological destruction caused by unbridled rage and offers philosophical therapy for maintaining emotional equilibrium.
Discussed“I recently read DEA the senica book um you know he is so unequivocal about how bad anger is”
Where to get it
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The Therapy of Desire
The Therapy of Desire by Martha C.
Recommended“um but she wrote a wonderful book called the therapy of desire which looks you know there's a a case study”
Where to get it
Other mentions in this episode (15) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
“because the book I did before um my stoicism book was on the wellness industry”
“so I wrote this book The Daily stoic which was one page a day”
“Well, I have the luxury of getting to do a good chunk of my Stoic journaling in public. I wrote this book, 'The Daily Stoic', which was one page a day, and then I just kept going. So every day for eight years, I've published a Stoic meditation.”
“Yeah, I just have a kind of blank journal that I do, and then I did this book called 'The Daily Journal', which has a Stoic prompt every day, and I like the prompts. So I do those from time to time also. For me, it's kind of a grab bag of different things to think about, but it's usually”
“and um the other thing about Syer is you know like when I write about him in in um in raisin not to worry what's his equivalent today”
“and so um my book did really well in Australia it's sold in like more than 20 different countries”
“like yeah like you know the the passage that I have helped popularize this one from Mark seris about how the obstacle is the way”
“um one of my books while Mania was turned into a netfli yeah”
“Um, one of my books, Well Mania was turned into a Netflix show. And, um, it's, it did a great first season. It did really well around the world.”
“because I remember I was I finished the manuscript for the obstacles away on a flight from Sydney to Perth”
“No, I I also try to remind myself of what, because I remember I was, I finished the manuscript for The Obstacle Is The Way on a flight from Sydney to Perth. Oh wow, uh, and three off fly, I just, I just finished it, I sent it in and I had zero idea that it would do as well”
“Yeah, you know, because I think 'Obstacle is the Way.' I also think ego is an obstacle—your own. It's the biggest obstacle, your own sort of sense of your entitlements, you know, where you should be in life.”
“I was writing ironically what would become ego as the enemy”
“I was writing, ironically, what would become 'Ego is the Enemy.' But so I didn't take the lack of success that personally because I was busy doing the thing. And then some random lucky things happened, like Amazon discounted it and it stayed discounted, audiobooks started to take off, some sports teams started to talk about it, and then it”
“The first time I hit number one on the New York Times bestseller list, I remember I was in Los Angeles, I was on book tour for 'Stillness is the Key.' And so I was a different time zone, and so I started getting lots of texts and emails. And my thing is I get up early and I don't”