Do Your Duty, Every Day, Everywhere

The Daily Stoic

Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures

Education, 694393, Daily Stoic, Society & Culture, Stoic, Stoicism, Self-improvement, Business, Stoic Philosophy, Philosophy, Ryan Holiday

4.6 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2019

⏱️ 3 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The French philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy was recently interviewed by the New York Times about his grueling travel schedule, which will include 22 cities this year.

This passage of the interview is worth highlighting:

Q: When you travel, do you read, write, sleep, or watch movies?

A: I do not live very differently when I travel and when I don’t, which means I do my duty. My duty is to read, to write, and to fight. These are the three things that are my duty. Traveling and not traveling, this is what I do.”

Although Lévy’s brand of philosophy is distinctly not Stoic—he’s the founder of the New Philosophers school—his answer does sound eerily similar to something Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditations 2,000 years ago:

“No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good. Like gold or emerald or purple repeating to itself, ‘No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my color undiminished.’”

This is all worth pointing out because of the disturbing habit we humans have of making excuses for not doing our duty or not being good. “It’s not cheating if it’s on vacation.” “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.” “They hit me first.” “I’m on the road, who cares about my diet (or my sobriety)?” “I was tired. I couldn’t take it anymore.”

No. Duty is duty. Good is good. We must do it every day, everywhere.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today.
0:13.6	Welcome to the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living good life.
0:23.3	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 at DailyStoic.com.
0:36.3	Do your duty every day, everywhere. The French philosopher Bernard Henry Levy was recently interviewed by the New York Times about his grueling travel schedule, which will include 22 cities this year.
0:50.3	This passage of the interview is worth highlighting. When you travel, do you read, write, sleep, or watch movies? I do not live very differently when I travel and when I don't, which means I do my duty.
1:03.3	My duty is to read, to write, and to fight. These are the three things that are my duty. Traveling and not traveling, this is what I do.
1:12.3	Although Levy's brand of new philosophy is distinctly not Stoke, he's the founder of the new philosopher school, and his answer sounds eerily similar to something Marcus Aurelius wrote in Meditations 2000 years ago.
1:27.3	No matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be good. Like gold or emerald or purple repeating to itself, no matter what anyone says or does, my task is to be emerald, my color undiminished.
1:43.3	This is all worth pointing out because of the disturbing habit we humans make of having excuses for not doing our duty or not being good.
1:53.3	It's not cheating if it's on vacation. What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. They hit me first. I'm on the road who cares about my diet or my sobriety. I was tired. I couldn't take it anymore.
2:08.3	No. Duty is duty. Good is good. We must do it every day, everywhere.
2:14.3	If you're liking this podcast, we would love for you to subscribe. Please leave us a review on iTunes or any of your favorite podcast listening apps. It really helps and tell a friend.
2:25.3	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 Wondering Plus in Apple podcasts.

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.