The Daily Stoic: 366 Meditations on Wisdom, Perseverance, and the Art of Living

Zeno of Citium, a Hellenistic philosopher from Cyprus, founded Stoicism as a philosophical school of thought in about 300 BCE in Athens, Greece. Zeno was influenced by the philosophers Socrates and Plato, and had studied at the Megarian School, which was critical of Aristotle. When Zeno founded his Stoic school, it focused on physics, logic, and ethics, all of which contained a number of subdisciplines. As Roman thinkers adopted Stoicism, they shifted the philosophy to be more practical, distinguishing it from more academic or abstract types of inquiry popular at the time. Famous Stoics, such as first-century writer and statesman Seneca and second-century philosopher Epictetus, and centered the discipline on identifying “real, actionable answers” (4) to the question of how to live a virtuous and fulfilling life.

Stoicism, like many other philosophies, was not always welcomed by those in power. Roman senator and famous Stoic Cato the Younger opposed Emperor Julius Caesar and died by suicide in 46 BCE rather than support Caesar’s reign. In the following century, Seneca tried to tame the wild Emperor Nero through Stoic virtues, only to be commanded to die by suicide in 65 CE. Just a few years later, in 71 CE, the Roman emperor Vespasian forced all of the philosophers in Rome into exile to remove the threat of their dissent against his government. Similarly, the Emperor Domitian banished Epictetus in 90 CE, feeling threatened by Epictetus’s dim view of tyrannical leaders.

A century later, however, Emperor Marcus Aurelius led Rome while adhering to Stoic principles. Tutored by Stoic thinker Quintus Junius Rusticas, Aurelius is now as famous for his reflective Stoic Meditations as for his time in power. Now one of the major texts in the Stoic canon, Meditations shows that he was continually refining his understanding and everyday application of Stoic beliefs. Aurelius praised Stoicism’s pragmatic approach, dismissing other philosophical inquiries as too abstract or meaningless: “I was blessed when I set my heart on philosophy that I didn’t fall into the sophist’s trap, nor remove myself to the writer’s desk, or chop logic, or busy myself with studying the heavens” (3).

Since its tumultuous early years in the ancient world, Stoicism’s popularity has waxed and waned. There is some debate as to whether the authors of the Bible may have been influenced by Stoic thought, and some medieval European thinkers engaged with Stoicism when analyzing political or social problems. European Renaissance philosophers revived Stoic thinking as they debated the merits of ancient schools of thought. Sixteenth-century Flemish philosopher Justus Lipsius argued that Stoicism was a valid philosophy compatible with Christianity. Over the following centuries, numerous thinkers from Desiderius Erasmus to Spinoza, to Francis Bacon, embraced elements of Stoic thought in their arguments. Modern authors and academics continue to explore and share Stoic teachings, which The Daily Stoic author Ryan Holiday believes are as relevant as ever and should be applied in people’s lives today.