The Daily Stoic - Don’t Be A Snob

Episode Date: September 27, 2023

Because of the work we’ve done. Because of the study. Because of the experiences. We know. We know what’s right. We know what’s possible. We know how things should go.The problem, as we’ve said before, is that it’s very easy to forget that the Stoics believed only in *self-*discipline.📗 Go to store.dailystoic.com/pages/discipline to order your copy of Discipline Is Destiny: The Power Of Self-Control.✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom every day life. Each one of these passages is based on the 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us dailystoweth.com. Don't be a snob. Because of the work we've done, because of the study, because of the experience, is we know. We know what's right. We know what's possible. We know how things should go. The problem, as we've said before, is that it's very easy to forget that the Stokes believed only in self-discipline. In F Scott Fitzgerald's wonderful short story, The Four Fists,

which we wrote about recently for very different reasons, Fitzgerald has a scene where a particularly distinguished young gentleman gets in an argument with a short tempered but otherwise decent workman. In the end, the workman bristles at being judged and attacks the gentleman, which serves as a well-deserved wake-up call for a guy who had long been convinced of his superiority to everyone else. Eventually, this mistake about the workman influenced his entire attitude, Fitzgerald writes,

snobbishness is, after all all merely good breeding grown dictatorial. So Samuel's code remained, but the necessity of imposing it upon others had faded out in a certain gutter. We should take note that the Stoics repeatedly spoke against taking on errors. Xeno and Epictetus's best one-liners are about puncturing the pretensions of their students. And Marcus Aurelius was beloved when historian writes, because his strictness was limited solely to himself. It's great that you've done this work.

It's great that you've learned so much. It's great that you have a strong code and set of standards. That doesn't give you the right to lord it over anyone else. It's your code. It's for self discipline. And we forget this at our peril. You know, discipline is destiny is about discipline, but that very specific kind of discipline, self discipline.

It's about the power of self control. And often when I sign the book and I'm assigning a bunch of them for the holidays, I underline self a couple times. It's self discipline. This isn't about Lording yourself, your standard, your stoicism about other people. It's about being the master of yourself. That's what the book is about.

I really hope you check it out. If you haven't already, it's been selling like crazy more than 60% up over courage, which has just blown me away. So thank you to everyone who's read it and supported the book. In the meantime, if you haven't read it, I'd love for you to check it out.

You can get signed copies at store.dailysteer.com. You can pick them up at the Payton porch or anywhere books are sold, including on Audible. I'll link to that in today's show notes. But I do hope you check out the new book and thank you for listening. Hey, Prime Members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic early and ad-free on Amazon Music, download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen early and ad-free with Wondery Plus in Apple Podcasts. or you can listen early and add free with Wondery Plus in Apple podcasts.