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Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a stoic-inspired meditation

designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life.

Each one of these episodes is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy

that has guided some of history's greatest men and women

to help you learn from them, to follow in their example,

and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom.

For more, visitdailystoic.com.

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 Stilocks speak about it.

Hakato 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. It 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. If you like The Daily Stoic, and thanks for listening, you can listen early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondry app or on Apple Podcasts.

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