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Welcome to the Daily Stoic 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 2000 year old philosophy that has guided some of history's greatest men and women. For more you can visit us at DailyStoic.com.

Life is school and school is life. Late in his reign, a friend stopped Marcus Aurelius as he was leaving the palace carrying the stack of books.

Finding this to be a surprising sight, the man asks where Marcus is going. He was off to attend a lecture on Stoicism, he said,

for learning is a good thing even for one who is growing old. From sexist to philosopher Marcus says, I shall learn that which I do not yet know.

It's incredible, even as the most powerful man in the world, Marcus was still taking up his books and heading to class.

In fact, sexist was only one of Marcus's philosophy teachers. In book one of meditations alone, he lists the names and what he learned from six other philosophy teachers, including one from arrival.

Another rousticus who Marcus thanks specifically for introducing him to Epictetus's lectures and loaning him a copy out of his own library.

You cannot find a Stoic philosopher or indeed any smart person who does not treat their study of philosophy with this kind of lifelong seriousness.

Xeno washes up in Athens and begins studying under Cratees, a well-known Athenian philosopher, then clientes studies under Xeno, not just for a few years, but for decades.

And Cato was famous for his philosophical dinners, where he invited the smartest and wisest minds of the ancient world to discuss the big philosophical questions he was struggling with. Even at his last meal before his famous suicide, he was debating the very implications of life and death, good and bad with philosophy teachers.

Epictetus was taught philosophy by Musonius Rufus before becoming a teacher himself of both the emperor Hadrian, whom he instructed directly, and Marcus Aurelius, who he reached with his writings.

Part of being a philosopher is being a lifelong learner. In life, school is never out for summer, and there is no spring or winter break. You can never be too old or too good at what you do.

No, school is life, and life is school. Learning is a daily thing, wisdom, and endless pursuit. You never arrive, you never fill up, you never graduate.

Because the world is always revealing new lessons, even in the oldest of texts. Therefore, Seneca writes there is no one more foolish than one who stops learning.

Even if you are one of the best at what you do, he says you should keep learning to the end of your life. And he then points out one of the great things about learning. Why it is so special and unlike any other pursuit.

It's something that we often overlook. Wisdom is one of the few things that you can count on in this life, in the sense that it's one of the few areas of growth or success that we have control over.

Money, titles, influence, authority, power, admiration, fame, these are great, but for the most part, they're outside of our control. They're up to other people. Something can stop us from achieving them.

But wisdom, learning, studying, Seneca says this does not fall upon us by chance. How much progress shall I make? He said, just as much as you try to make.

So why do you wait? Wisdom comes haphazardly to no man.

And that's why we created Stoicism 101, ancient philosophy for your actual life. This course, Stoicism 101, is a 14 day course designed to cheat you what you do not yet know.

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