The Daily Stoic

A book of daily readings in Stoic philosophy, with one short page for each day of the year, including 29 February. Each page gives a passage from a Stoic source, mostly Marcus Aurelius, Seneca and Epictetus, with occasional lines from others such as Zeno and Musonius Rufus, in new translations by Stephen Hanselman, followed by a few paragraphs of commentary by Ryan Holiday applying it to modern life. The year is divided into three parts, following the three disciplines found in Epictetus and Marcus: perception (January to April), action (May to August) and will (September to December). Each month has its own theme: clarity, passions and emotions, awareness, unbiased thought, right action, problem solving, duty, pragmatism, fortitude and resilience, virtue and kindness, acceptance or amor fati, and meditation on mortality. The emphasis falls on what lies within our control, calm judgement and everyday conduct, rather than on Stoic physics or logic.

It offers a simple daily habit of reading the Stoics, and introduces their key ideas on control, emotion and mortality in small, practical doses.