But the wise person can lose nothing. Such a person has everything stored up for themselves, leaving nothing to Fortune, their own goods are held firm, bound in virtue, which requires nothing from chance, and therefore can’t be either increased or diminished.
—Seneca, On The Firmness Of The Wise, 5.4
Some people put their money in assets—stocks, bonds, property. Others invest in relationships or accomplishments, knowing that they can draw on these things just as easily as others can draw funds from a bank account. But a third type, Seneca says, invests in themselves—in being a good and wise person.
Which of these assets is most immune to market fluctuations and disasters? Which is most resilient in the face of trials and tribulations? Which will never abandon you? Seneca’s own life is an interesting example. He became quite wealthy as a friend of the emperor, but as Nero became more and more deranged, Seneca realized he needed to get out. He offer Nero a deal: he would give Nero all his money and return all of Nero’s gifts in exchange for complete and total freedom.
Ultimately, Nero rejected this offer, but Seneca left anyway, retiring in relative peace. But one day, the executioners came with their mortal decree. In that moment, what did Seneca rely on? It wasn’t his money. It wasn’t his friends, who, although they meant well, were a considerable source of grief and mourning. It was his virtue and inner strength.
It was Seneca’s most trying moment—his last and his finest.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Does the light of a lamp shine and keep its glow until its fuel is spent? Why shouldn’t your truth, justice, and self-control shine until you are extinguished?
—Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 12.15
Seneca, repeating Heraclitus, writes that “we mortals are lighted and extinguished.” The light of reason suffuses the universe. Whether the wick of your lamp is being lit for the first time, after a long period of darkness, or even right before the proverbial big sleep, it makes no difference.
Here is where you are right now, and it’s as good a place as any to let virtue shine and continue to shine for as long as you exist.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
If you lay violent hands on me, you’ll have my body, but my mind will remain with Stilpo.
—Zeno, Quoted In Diogenes Laertius, Lives Of The Eminent Philosophers, 7.1.24
Zeno is not claiming magic powers but simply that while his body can be victimized, philosophy protects his mind—cultivated under his teacher, Stilpo—with an inner fortress whose gates can never be broken from the outside, only surrendered.
Look at Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, the boxer wrongly convicted of homicide who spent nearly twenty years in prison. He would say, “I don’t acknowledge the existence of the prison. It doesn’t exist for me.” Of course, the prison literally existed, and he was physically inside it. But he refused to let his mind be contained by it.
That’s a power that you have too. Hopefully you’ll never have to use this power in a situation of violence or grave injustice; however, in the midst of any and every kind of adversity, it is there. No matter what’s happening to your body, no matter what the outside world inflicts on you, your mind can remain philosophical. It’s still yours. It’s untouchable—and in a way, then, so are you.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Nothing can satisfy greed, but even a small measure satisfies nature. So it is that the poverty of an exile brings no misfortune, for no place of exile is so barren as not to produce ample support for a person.
—Seneca, On Consolation To Helvia, 10.11b
It can be beneficial to reflect on what you used to accept as normal. Consider your first paycheck—how big it seemed then. Or your first apartment, with its own bedroom and bathroom and the ramen you gladly scarfed down in the kitchen. Today, as you’ve become more successful, these conditions would hardly feel sufficient. In fact, you probably want even more than what you have right now. Yet just a few years ago those paltry conditions were not only enough, they felt great!
When we become successful, we forget how strong we used to be. We are so used to what we have, we half believe we’d die without it. Of course, this is just the comfort talking. In the days of the world wars, our parents and grandparents made do with rationed gas, butter, and electricity. They were fine, just as you have been fine when you had less.
Remember today that you’d be OK if things suddenly went wrong. Your actual needs are small. There is very little that could happen that would truly threaten your survival. Think about that—and adjust your worries and fears accordingly.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
How appropriate that the gods put under our control only the most powerful ability that governs all the rest—the ability to make the right use of external appearances—and that they didn’t put anything else under out control. Was this simply because they weren’t willing to give us more? I think if it had been possible they would have given us more, but it was impossible.
—Epictetus, Discourses, 1.1.7-8
We could look at the upcoming day and despair at all the things we don’t control: other people, our health, the temperature, the outcome of a project once it leaves our hands.
Or we could look out at that very same day and rejoice at the one thing we do control: the ability to decide what any event means.
This second option offers the ultimate power—a true and fair form of control. If you have control over other people, wouldn’t other people have control over you? Instead, what you’ve been granted is the fairest and most usable of trump cards. While you don’t control external events, you retain the ability to decide how you respond to those events. You control what every external event means to you personally.
This includes the difficult one in front of you right now. You’ll find, if you approach it right, that this trump card is plenty.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
For even peace itself will supply more reason for worry. Not even safe circumstances will bring you confidence once your mind has been shocked—once it gets in the habit of blind panic, it can’t provide for its own safety. For it doesn’t really avoid danger, it just runs away. Yet we are exposed to greater danger with our backs turned.
—Seneca, Moral Letters, 104.10b
There’s an old proverb that money doesn’t change people, it just makes them more of who they are. Robert Caro has written that “power doesn’t corrupt, it reveals.” In some ways, prosperity—financial and personal—is the same way.
If your mind has developed a certain cast—the habit of panicking, in Seneca‘s example—then it won’t matter how good things get for you. You’re still primed for panic. Your mind will still find things to worry about, and you’ll still be miserable. Perhaps more so even, because now you have more to lose.
This is why it’s foolish to hope for good fortune. If you were to hope for one thing, you could hope for the strength of character that’s able to thrive in good fortune. Or better, work for that kind of character and confidence. Consider every action and every thought—think of them as building blocks of your indestructible character. Then work to make each one strong and significant in its own right.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Leisure without study is death—a tomb for the living person.
—Seneca, Moral Letters, 82.4
You deserve a vacation. You work hard. You sacrifice. You push yourself. It’s time for a break. Hop a plane, check into your hotel, and head to the beach—but tuck a book under your arm (and not a trashy beach read). Make sure you enjoy your relaxation like a poet—not idly but actively, observing the world around you, taking it all int, better understanding your place in the universe. Take a day off from work every now and then, but not a day off from learning.
Maybe your goal is to make enough money so that you can retire early. Good for you! But the purpose of retirement is not to live a life of indolence or to run out the clock, as easy as that might be to do. Rather, it’s to allow for the pursuit of your real calling now that a big distraction is out of the way. To sit around all day and do nothing? To watch endless amounts of television or simply travel from place to place so that you might cross locations off a checklist? That is not life. It’s not freedom either.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
Show me someone who isn’t a slave! One is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to power, and all are slaves to fear. I could name a former Consul who is a slave to a little old woman, a millionaire who is the slave of the cleaning woman…. No servitude is more abject than the self-imposed.
—Seneca, Moral Letters, 47.17
We’re all addicts in one way or another. We’re addicted to our routines, to our coffee, to our comfort, to someone else’s approval. These dependencies mean we’re not in control of our own lives—the dependency is.
“Anyone who truly wants to be free,” Epictetus said, “won’t desire something that is actually in someone else’s control, unless they want to be a slave.” The subjects of our affection can be removed from us at a moment’s notice. Our routines can be disrupted, the doctor can forbid us from drinking coffee, we can be thrust into uncomfortable situations.
This is why we must strengthen ourselves by testing these dependencies before they become too great. Can you try going without this or that for a day? Can you put yourself on a diet for a month? Can you resist the urge to pick up the phone to make that call? Have you ever taken a cold shower? It’s not so bad after the first couple of times. Have you ever driven a friend’s car while the nicer one you own was in the shop? Was it really that bad? Make yourself invulnerable to your dependency on comfort and convenience, or one day your vulnerability might bring you to your knees.
* Source: The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holiday and Stephen Hanselman
