The Daily Stoic - We Are Poor Compared To Them

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

Getting to a place where you know yourself, where you have controlled your needs, where you understand and live by your values is an incredibly wealthy place. Do you have it?🎶 Song lyrics: A Satisfied Mind (Bon Iver version)🎟️ DAILY STOIC LIVE | Ryan Holiday is coming to a city near you! Grab tickets here |  https://www.dailystoiclive.com/🎙️ AD-FREE | Support the podcast and go deeper into Stoicism by subscribing to The Daily Stoic Premium - unlock ad-free listening, early access, and bonus content: https://dailystoic.supercast.com/🎥 VIDEO EPISODES| Watch the video episodes on The Daily Stoic YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@DailyStoic/videos✉️ FREE STOIC WISDOM | Want Stoic wisdom delivered to your inbox daily? Sign up for the FREE Daily Stoic email at https://dailystoic.com/dailyemailSee 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, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. We are poor compared to them. It seemed like he had nothing. He had no home. He had no job. He dressed in rags. Yet when Diogenes encountered Alexander the Great, it was ultimately the poor philosopher

who came out on top. Alexander, who could offer wealth and power and protection, virtually anything in the world, asked Diogenes if there was something he could do for him. Diogenes wanted for nothing and was therefore bold enough to tell Alexander the Great to go away and stop blocking his son. It calls to mind the lyrics in the classic song A Satisfied Mind. Well, the wealthiest per... With his pauper at times, it's poor times. Compared to the men with a satisfied Epictetus was such a man, too. He was born a slave in the household of one of Nero's officials.

But looking around at the sycophants and psychopaths, he came to understand that actually he was much freer than them. He had something they could never buy, self-possession. He had equanimity and wisdom. Getting to a place where you know yourself, where you have controlled your needs, where you understand and live by values is an incredibly wealthy place. How many rich people actually have it? Do you?