Books recommended on The Daily Stoic
Ryan Holiday and guests brought up 79 books across 19 recent episodes, 28 of them explicit recommendations — each with the episode, the minute, and what was said.
Ryan Holiday · US · YouTube · Jump to episode by episode ↓
Latest mentions
Books mentioned on this show
- 1 MeditationsMarcus Aurelius AureliusAmazon 14 episodes · 2 recommended
- 2 The OdysseyΌμηροςAmazon 5 episodes
- 3 RangeDavid J. EpsteinAmazon 2 episodes · 1 recommended
- 4 CatoJoseph AddisonAmazon 2 episodes
- 5 THE BOY, THE MOLE, THE FOX AND THE HORSELovren JoelAmazon 2 episodes
- 6 Where'd You Go, BernadetteMaria SempleAmazon 2 episodes
- 7 A Calendar of WisdomLeo TolstoyAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 8 A Guide to the Good LifeWilliam B. IrvineAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 9 BuddhaKaren ArmstrongAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 10 Ghost RiderNeil PeartAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 11 Good to GreatCollins, James C.Amazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 12 How the Mighty FallJim CollinsAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 13 How to Hide an EmpireDaniel ImmerwahrAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 14 Inside The BoxDavid EpsteinAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 15 Letters from a Stoic.Seneca the YoungerAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 16 Life on the MississippiMark TwainAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 17 PapyrusAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 18 President LincolnWilliam Lee MillerAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 19 Roosevelt, the lion and the foxJames MacGregor BurnsAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 20 Self-relianceRalph Waldo EmersonAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 21 Small and the MightySharon McMahonAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 22 Spying on the SouthTony HorwitzAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 23 SupercommunicatorsCharles DuhiggAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 24 The ArcadianSteven PressfieldAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 25 The FallAlbert CamusAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 26 The Memoirs of Baron de MarbotArthur John ButlerAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 27 The Myth of Sisyphus and Other EssaysAlbert CamusAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 28 The PlagueAlbert CamusAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 29 The Warmth of Other SunsIsabel WilkersonAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 30 TyrantStephen GreenblattAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 31 Your Fellow AmericansPeter SantenelloAmazon 1 episode · 1 recommended
- 32 A psalm of lifeHenry Wadsworth LongfellowAmazon 1 episode
- 33 AbundanceEzra KleinAmazon 1 episode
- 34 Acts of the ApostlesI. Howard MarshallAmazon 1 episode
- 35 American CaesarWilliam ManchesterAmazon 1 episode
- 36 Amusing Ourselves to DeathNeil PostmanAmazon 1 episode
- 37 Atlas ShruggedAyn RandAmazon 1 episode
- 38 BelovedToni MorrisonAmazon 1 episode
- 39 Bhagavad-GitaVyasaAmazon 1 episode
- 40 DeuteronomyTelford WorkAmazon 1 episode
- 41 DiscoursesEpictetusAmazon 1 episode
- 42 Down Under (In a Sunburned Country)Bill BrysonAmazon 1 episode
- 43 EcclesiastesChoon-Leon SeowAmazon 1 episode
- 44 From Here to EternityJames JonesAmazon 1 episode
- 45 Gates of fireSteven PressfieldAmazon 1 episode
- 46 Go GentleMaria SempleAmazon 1 episode
- 47 Harry Potter and the Philosopher's StoneJ. K. RowlingAmazon 1 episode
- 48 History of the Peloponnesian WarThucydidesAmazon 1 episode
- 49 Hitler's willing executionersDaniel Jonah GoldhagenAmazon 1 episode
- 50 If--Rudyard KiplingAmazon 1 episode
- 51 In love and warJames B. StockdaleAmazon 1 episode
- 52 Intimations Of ImmortalityWilliam WordsworthAmazon 1 episode
- 53 JazzToni MorrisonAmazon 1 episode
- 54 Letters from a StoicSeneca the YoungerAmazon 1 episode
- 55 Man at ArmsSteven PressfieldAmazon 1 episode
- 56 Man's Search for MeaningViktor E. FranklAmazon 1 episode
- 57 MatthewR. T. FranceAmazon 1 episode
- 58 MeditationsMarcus AureliusAmazon 1 episode
- 59 MuhammadKaren ArmstrongAmazon 1 episode
- 60 NapoleonAndrew RobertsAmazon 1 episode
- 61 On AngerSeneca the YoungerAmazon 1 episode
- 62 Plato and the TyrantJames RommAmazon 1 episode
- 63 RepublicΠλάτωνAmazon 1 episode
- 64 The 48 Laws of PowerRobert GreeneAmazon 1 episode
- 65 The Brothers KaramazovФёдор Михайлович ДостоевскийAmazon 1 episode
- 66 The Bully PulpitDoris Kearns GoodwinAmazon 1 episode
- 67 The complete EssaysMontaigne, Michel deAmazon 1 episode
- 68 The EnchiridionEpictetusAmazon 1 episode
- 69 The Great InfluenzaJohn M. BarryAmazon 1 episode
- 70 The Guns of AugustBarbara TuchmanAmazon 1 episode
- 71 The IliadΌμηροςAmazon 1 episode
- 72 The legend of Bagger VanceSteven PressfieldAmazon 1 episode
- 73 The LeopardGiuseppe Tomasi di LampedusaAmazon 1 episode
- 74 The MoviegoerWalker PercyAmazon 1 episode
- 75 The Right StuffTom WolfeAmazon 1 episode
- 76 The virtues of warSteven PressfieldAmazon 1 episode
- 77 The War of ArtSteven PressfieldAmazon 1 episode
- 78 Tides of WarSteven PressfieldAmazon 1 episode
- 79 Why We're PolarizedEzra KleinAmazon 1 episode
By the host
- The Obstacle is the WayRyan Holiday plugged in 4 episodes
- The daily stoicRyan Holiday plugged in 1 episode
- Courage Is CallingRyan Holiday plugged in 1 episode
- The obstacle is the wayRyan Holiday plugged in 1 episode
Episode by episode
What’s Actually Stopping You From Doing Your Best Work · 2026-08-22
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“his new novel, The Arcadian, which is incredible. It's part of this series he's working on.”
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“he's the same, he's a reincarnation of the character from A Man at Arms.”
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“the first he was in he was in Tides of War and he was in the Virtues of War. That's probably 15 years ago.”
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“he was in Tides of War and he was in the Virtues of War. That's probably 15 years ago.”
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“we come into this life trailing clouds of glory do we come from God who is our home.”
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“Have you ever read the memoirs of Baron Marbot? Oh, fantastic book.”
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“The Legend of Bagger Vance, the book, not the movie. I realized that's about reincarnation.”
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“David Epstein wrote this book called range that's really good. He's a sports journalist.”
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“his new book is called inside the box. The subtitle is the power of constraints.”
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“I wrote down this passage in meditations and I thought oh there's something here.”
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“The obstacle is the way came because I wrote down this passage in meditations.”
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“When I was writing Courage is Calling, I decided the third part would talk about the 300 Spartans.”
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“Steven Greenblatt wrote this book called on tyrants, a look at Shakespeare's political plays.”
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“You think about James Jones, you know, from here to eternity or John Irving.”
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“For me writing Gates of Fire, setting a story in ancient Greece with the Spartans.”
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“movies like Star Wars have certainly influenced bazillion people or Harry Potter.”
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“poems like Longfellow's A Psalm of Life or Invictus. about the struggle and fight.”
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“When Michael Caine read If, it brought you to tears. It was brilliant.”
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“Or you read history of the Peloponnesian War. None of those speeches happened.”
How To Deal With Difficult People · 2026-08-15
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“I loved the first one”
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“Marcus Aurelius's meditations the the the primary text in Stoic philosophy”
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“that book Hitler's Willing executioners you know it's it's about your neighbors”
You Don’t Know the People You’re Judging | Peter Santenello · 2026-08-08
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“She has this really great new book called Your Fellow Americans.”
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“He's talking about being in Australia and picking up a newspaper. He's reading about some murder and it's not scary because the names are ridiculous.”
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“Tony Horowitz wrote another book where he recreates the journey. It's his last book and it's called Spying on the South.”
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“Have you read The Warmth of Other Suns about the Great Migration?”
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“Life on the Mississippi recreates Lincoln's journey to New Orleans. Does all the big American rivers as they would have done it 150 years ago.”
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“Have you read this book? I think it's the best road trip book ever written.”
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“Here is The Small and Mighty by Sharon. Man, you'll love her.”
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“Have you read How to Hide an Empire? It's a history of the greater United States.”
11 Final Takeaways From The Odyssey · 2026-08-04
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“What is a 3,000 year-old poem about gods and goddesses, monsters, shipwrecks? What could this possibly teach us here today in the present moment? The answer is everything.”
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“This may have been why you ended up writing the 48 Laws of Power. Someone told you some dark stories when you were six.”
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“I tell the story in The Obstacle Is the Way. We know how a Stoic would respond to this.”
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“There's this quote in Meditations about how the best revenge is to not be like that.”
You Don't Want Autonomy With David Epstein · 2026-08-03
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“And then after the last one after Range I became a dad and I said I cannot do that again.”
The Decay Of Decency With Ezra Klein · 2026-07-25
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“If you read my first book, Why We're Polarized, the balance of the critique is on the right because the right had polarized.”
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“Abundance was an act of self-critique. I'm a liberal Californian. Why isn't California governed by liberals leading to better outcomes?”
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“Perhaps there's never been more important and impactful words ever written and they were written by one of the most powerful leaders.”
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“I think this book is incredible. The perspective of a person earnestly in one spiritual tradition writing openly and curiously about another is very powerful.”
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PapyrusRecommended
“Papyrus by Irene Vallejo, basically about the notebook. This book starts in the 1400s about sort of Renaissance ones.”
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“This is The Lion and the Fox, the first political biography of Franklin Delano Roosevelt.”
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“A companion book I would give you is President Lincoln by William Lee Miller, a political biography of Lincoln as a politician.”
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“Doris Kearns Goodwin's The Bully Pulpit is a good example of the contrast between Taft and Roosevelt, their understanding of the media.”
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“She has one on Muhammad, doesn't she? Yeah.”
The Fall Of The Roman Republic With Barry Strauss · 2026-07-18
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“Have you ever read Walker Percy's the movie goer? I was rereading it recently and there's this line in it”
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“So my big line which I repeat adnauseium comes from um this great novel, The Leopard”
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“Washington was a huge fan of Ko but the Ko that he loved was the Ko of Addison's play”
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“I mean, William Manchester wrote this book, I think, American Caesar. We have it in the bookstore”
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“I was reading Andrew Roberts's biography of Napoleon a few years ago and he has this great section”
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“My nine-year-old's obsessed with Greek history and having these discussions about the Odyssey”
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“Even Aristotle quotes the Iliad”
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“When I read Ecclesiastes I'm like what stoic philosopher is this?”
6 Stoic Rules To Beat Ego · 2026-07-13
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“He actually addresses it in Meditations. He says, "Consider that before long you'll be nobody, just like Hadrian, just like Augustus." He said, "So live and act with humility."”
Senator Mark Kelly on Stoicism, Space, and Staying Calm Under Pressure · 2026-06-10
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“In The Right Stuff, the line that I was always struck by is Tom Wolfe points out that like John Glenn's heart rate never goes above 100 during the the thing.”
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“I'm curious what you thought. I'm going to read you these quick passages cuz it sounds like he has. These are all in book seven, three in a row.”
How To Think Better in the Age of AI (From the Stoics) · 2026-05-11
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“Marcus Aurelius also writes in Meditations about going directly to the seat of knowledge.”
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“his famous exchange, which survives to us in letters from a Stoic, is him and his friend Lucilius passing ideas back and forth”
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“In Seneca's time, he was talking about how people will read the Odyssey and debate these arcane points about Odysseus”
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“Peter Burke, one of Montaigne's biographers, believed that Montaigne's essays were his attempt to catch himself in the act of thinking”
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“I interviewed Charles Duhigg. He has this great book called Supercommunicators. And supercommunicators aren't these amazing orators”
Medal of Honor Recipient Kyle Carpenter on the Stoic Virtue of Courage | Daily Stoic Podcast · 2026-05-02
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“I wrote this book, The Obstacle Is the Way, and I think people it's been it's meant something to people”
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“There's a line of Meditations, which whenever I do military talks, I always bring up”
40 Hidden Lessons From Marcus Aurelius' Meditations · 2026-04-27
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“This is Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, the private thoughts of the most powerful man in the world. But there are secrets, there are lessons inside this book that went way over my head.”
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“It made me think of what Stephen Pressfield talks about in The War of Art, that we kind of have the higher self and the lower self.”
The 5-Step Stoic Routine For Thinking Clearly | Maria Semple on the Daily Stoic Podcast · 2026-04-22
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“Oprah had read The Obstacle Is the Way. It turns out she heard about not just my book, but Stoicism in general from a new novel.”
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“She has a new book called Go Gentle. And in the novel, the main character is a Stoic philosopher.”
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“You may have heard of her other book, Where'd You Go, Bernadette, which was a huge seller a few years back.”
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“One of my favorite passages in Meditations where Marcus Aurelius is observing all these beautiful things in nature that actually aren't that beautiful.”
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“I read William Irvine, that book, that was like the first book that I read and it was really about the good life.”
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“The Discourses of Epictetus is you're literally a man preaching. You're listening to a professor speak about Stoicism.”
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“The Enchiridion of Epictetus I like better than the Discourses because it is filtered down and edited in a way that gets to the core of it.”
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“I got your book The Daily Stoic which I just loved and I have my copy here. I'm very excited for you to sign it.”
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“That was the first direct thing I read of the Stoics was the letters of Seneca. That really was the thing that made me think this is really interesting.”
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“There's this great page I think about it all the time. We actually have it framed on my wall of the house.”
The Best Passages From Marcus Aurelius' Meditations Read by Ryan Holiday · 2026-04-19
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“I'm talking of course about Marcus Aurelius's Meditations, private thoughts of the emperor of Rome. And I love this book. I've read it more than a hundred times. Every time I read it, I get something new out of it.”
31 of the absolute BEST lessons from Marcus Aurelius · 2026-04-13
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“This book, right here, has been the guide for presidents and generals and leaders for almost 20 centuries. Theodore Roosevelt carried it with him.”
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“Marcus Aurelius reminds himself, don't go around expecting Plato's Republic. That's not where you live.”
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“There's a book I like to read my kids called The Boy, the Fox, the Horse, and the Mole. Asking for help isn't giving up, it's refusing to give up.”
What To Do When Life Doesn’t Go as Planned | Jim Collins on the Daily Stoic Podcast · 2026-04-12
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“She had just read my book, The Obstacles Away, if I would fly out to Maui to talk about it for this episode she was doing.”
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“I love his books, uh, Good to Great, of course, How the Mighty Fall.”
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“I love his books, uh, Good to Great, of course, How the Mighty Fall.”
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“I first of all sat down and read his book which he wrote in alternating chapters with his wife called In Love and War”
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“One of the fundamental ironies of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations is you're reading a book that is still a bestseller 2,000 years after it was written”
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“President Kennedy reads The Guns of August, which is about the start of World War I”
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“Another great example of this is the book The Great Influenza by John M. Barry.”
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“Tony Morrison didn't write Beloved till 56 or publish it.”
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“Jazz at 61. Over half of her books after the age of 60.”
Arthur Brooks' Ultimate Philosophy Masterclass | The Daily Stoic Podcast · 2026-03-28
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“he wrote this book Plato and the Tyrant about Plato's forays into politics being a cautionary tale against intellectuals participating in public life”
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“you read something in Meditations and you go that's a beautiful idea and you don't realize that's them riffing on other ideas that came before”
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“this play by Joseph Addison called Cato was popular in the 18th century and 80% of what the founders were saying was just them quoting this play”
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“It's like the Odyssey basically. The epic adventure of Lord Krishna is the hero's journey but from India”
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“the Bhagavad Gita is a Hindu holy book about an avatar representing spiritual beings living a physical existence in an ordinary life”
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“in the Acts of the Apostles what was going on in early Christianity they talk about people meeting from all over the world intermingling”
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“Matthew 5:44 the Sermon on the Mount: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. Love your neighbor as yourself”
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“Deuteronomy 5: You will love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and all your means with all everything you got”
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“Galt's Gulch in Atlas Shrugged: the little guys are parasites. Retreat to your fantasy world where only entrepreneurs and geniuses hang out”
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“Everybody should read Self-Reliance. It's like a tall glass of cool water on a summer day. Stoicism and Christianity mixed together”
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“If we read one Camus we'll read The Myth of Sisyphus. That's the one thing to read if we're talking about happiness and meaning”
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“The Fall and The Plague are two striking books for this moment. The Fall is a moral allegory about indifference to suffering”
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“The Fall and The Plague are two striking books for this moment relevant to World War II and problems with moral indifference”
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“You gave me the calendar of wisdom from Tolstoy and it's so good to read right before bed with a lot of Catholic teaching”
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“a lot of what we're talking about here you can learn just by reading the Brothers K about Russian existentialism and finding meaning”
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“Man's Search for Meaning is his most famous book. Frankl starts by quoting Nietzsche: A man can bear any suffering with a why”
Jordan Klepper on How to Talk to People You Disagree With | Daily Stoic Podcast · 2026-03-06
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“Have you read amusing ourselves to death... his point that basically television is not a medium by which you can communicate intelligent thought is really as spot-on as it can get.”
The Complete Stoic Playbook To MASTER Your Emotions · 2026-03-02
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“There's a great essay that that Seneca writes called On Anger. And he's talking about how the leader, the emperor, is the person who can least afford to make decisions while angry.”
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“In Meditations, Marcus Aurelius says, You assemble your life action by action, step by step.”
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“The Odyssey is a story about perseverance.”