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

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

Marcus Aurelius was the most powerful man in the world, but he knew that even so, the vast majority of things were outside

of his control. He couldn't control what other people did. He couldn't control what other people

said. Certainly, even though some emperors tried, couldn't control what other people said about him.

But even within these constraints, he tried to be the best person he was capable

of being. You know, he's born in the year 121. He comes to power in the year 161 AD. He rules for

nearly two decades through all sorts of difficulty, things that were unfortunately familiar with today, political unrest,

floods, issues at the border, a plague, even the Antonine plague. And so I find him just an endlessly

fascinating model for life. And so in today's episode, I want to give you some rules for life from Marcus

Aurelius practices, strategies, things I've taken from meditations, things I've taken from

the biographical information we have about Marcus, things we can guess about Marcus, but real practices, rules, standards, ways of

thinking that we can apply to our actual life. I just, you know, again, you think about the power

this guy had. And I love this line from Matthew Arnold. He says, despite getting all of that,

Marcus proves himself worthy of it. So how do we do that? I think these rules are a recipe for at least

getting close. Certainly, they'll make us better, stronger, more honorable, kinder, more patient,

more virtuous, all the things Marcus strove to

be and do. So here are nine stoic rules for better life from the one and only Marcus Aurelius.

My favorite story about Marcus Aurelius comes at the depths of the Antonine plague, which is a

horrible pandemic that kills millions of people. Rome's economy has been devastated. People are dying in the streets,

and everyone feels like it can't possibly get better. And what does Marcus Aurelius do? He walks through

the imperial palace and begins to mark things for sale. For two months, he sells on the lawn

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