The Daily Stoic - Is There Anything Better Than This?
Episode Date: April 16, 2025There is almost no situation that hatred improves, but love enhances nearly everything.🎉 Celebrate Marcus Aurelius' Birthday this month by reading Meditations with us and the Daily Stoic c...ommunity. On April 26th, 1905 years after the day of his birth, Ryan Holiday will host an invite-only LIVE Q&A to talk about all things Marcus Aurelius and Meditations.Get 20% off with a Meditations BOOK & GUIDE bundle. Join the LIVE Meditations Q&A with Ryan Holiday by purchasing before April 26th!Get all our Meditations offering and learn more at our official Meditations Collection at dailystoic.com/meditations today. 🎙️ Follow The Daily Stoic Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dailystoicpodcast🎥 Watch top moments from The Daily Stoic Podcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dailystoicpodcast✉️ Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail🏛 Get Stoic inspired books, medallions, and prints to remember these lessons at the Daily Stoic Store: https://store.dailystoic.com/📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, and FacebookSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
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Welcome to The Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a Stoic-inspired meditation
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Marcus Aurelius said that if you ever found anything better in life than courage, discipline,
justice, and wisdom, those four Stoic virtues, that it must be an extraordinary thing indeed.
Which raises the question, is there anything better?
Well here's one pretty extraordinary thing.
Love.
Sure you could argue that love fits within the virtue of justice, but it's notable how much
the Stoics speak about it. Haccado said, I can teach you a love potion made without any drugs,
herbs, or special spell. And it's this, if you would be loved, love. Marcus Aurelius himself
says in Meditations that he learned from his teacher Sextus that the key to life was to be
free of passion, but full of love.
Indeed, there is almost no situation in which hatred helps,
but almost every situation is made better by love.
Love is something that transforms us.
Pure love, careless of all other things,
kindles the soul, Seneca said.
It makes us selfless and inspires us to be better.
In the end, the Beatles wrote, the love you take is equal to the love you make.
And that love is the thing that gives us meaning.
Love may not be better than the four virtues, but is certainly their equal.
It emboldens courage and inspires discipline.
It strengthens justice.
It gives purpose to wisdom.
And it is an extraordinary thing indeed.
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