Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, designed to help bring those four key stoic virtues,

courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom into the real world.

It is a lonely thing.

Many people knew.

They knew they were flirting with danger. They knew he had designs. They knew

that these were compromises that violated Rome's traditions. They knew that he would never be satisfied.

But they didn't do anything. They didn't say anything or try to stop it because they weren't sure how it was

going to go down. This is the story of

the rise of Caesar. It's the story of Octavian, his successor. It's the story of Rome's emperors,

competent and cruel alike. It is not the story of Cato, who stood up against it. It is not

the story of Thrasia and Helvidius who stood up against it. It is not the story of Thracia and Helvidius,

who stood against Nero. It is not the story of Thomas Wentworth Higginson, the translator of

Epictetus, who was radicalized in the 1850s by the enforcement of the Fugitive Slave Act,

seeing clearly the lengths the slave powers would go to. These were lonely positions.

They were not at first successful positions either. But that's not what a Stoic thinks about.

They think about what is right. They don't ask, is this safe? They say, that's wrong. And they say

this loudly and repeatedly, even if it's unpopular, even if they

are threatened for it, because that's what courage and justice, two of the most essential Stoic

virtues, demand of us. That's also the theme of right thing right now, which is my third book in the Stoke

Virtue series, which is all about how we do this, how we take those lonely stands, why

we take those lonely stands, what sustains us when we take them. And I think there are obviously

some connections to where we are historically, politically, culturally right now. You can grab right thing right now, as well as courage is calling,

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