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Welcome to the Daily Stood Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom

designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom every day life.

Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000 year old philosophy that has guided some

of history's greatest men and women. For more, you can visit us dailystood.com.

In 1859, before he was president, before he suffered through the heroin train ride to Washington

on his way to office, where many thought he would be killed before he arrived, before

the union tore itself to pieces, and hundreds of thousands of people died in the Civil War,

Abraham Lincoln gave a speech at the Wisconsin State Fair. The subject of the speech was supposed

to be agriculture, but Lincoln decided to go a little deeper. He told the story of an

Eastern king who asked his wisest philosophers to provide him a sentence that would not

just be true in each and every situation, but always be worth hearing.

They presented him the words Lincoln said, and this too shall pass away. How much it expresses

how chasening in the hour of pride, how consoling in the depths of affliction Lincoln said,

and this too shall pass away. Did Lincoln know that this story was a core teaching in Buddhist

philosophy? Did he know the incredible triumphs and fiery trials that lay ahead? Could he

have been more than enough to sense that it applied to his brief existence on this planet

that he had less than six years left to live, with which to do his work before he too would

pass away? Marcus Aurelius certainly understood this, writing that we must keep in mind how fast

things pass by and are gone, those that are now and those to come. The events of the world,

good and bad, beautiful and tragic were terrifying, flow past us quickly. None of them are stable.

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