Are You Willing To Be Cut Off? | Say No To The Need To Impress
The Daily Stoic
Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures
4.5 • 5.3K Ratings
🗓️ 27 March 2026
⏱️ 10 minutes
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Summary
Where is our bravery? Where will we draw the line? What will we put on the line?
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues, |
| 0:07.8 | courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world. |
| 0:14.6 | Are you willing to be cut off? |
| 0:18.0 | They worked hard for it. |
| 0:19.6 | They took it seriously. |
| 0:20.7 | They liked it. They didn't want to lose it. |
| 0:22.8 | Who would? Who would want to lose their position? Their identity, their career, or their home? |
| 0:29.1 | But when Helvidius was threatened with removal from the Senate by the Emperor Vespasian, |
| 0:34.1 | he refused to refrain from his criticism. Routilius was willing to be exiled. |
| 0:39.3 | So was Agrippinus. |
| 0:40.3 | They were not willing to trade their self-respect for maintaining their access. |
| 0:45.3 | They understood that there were fates worse in life than being cut off. |
| 0:49.3 | In fact, they would rather be cut off from Rome than cut off from their values. |
| 0:55.4 | Courage is not an easy thing. |
| 0:58.1 | It is not free. |
| 0:59.4 | It is not without risk or sacrifice. |
| 1:02.4 | And that's the whole point. |
| 1:04.4 | If it weren't, there'd be nothing to be afraid of, nothing to fear, nothing for fear to whisper in our ear about. |
| 1:12.3 | Courage is about triumphing over that doubt. It's fighting to do what's right, to remain |
| 1:18.0 | consistent with what philosophy demands of us. We are living right now in a world where |
| 1:23.9 | leaders are not doing this, and we are experiencing the consequences. And apparently there is not enough shame in the world to leaders are not doing this and we are experiencing the consequences. |
| 1:32.0 | And apparently there is not enough shame in the world to get them to change. |
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