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 dailystoic.com.

In Sanaka was a very rich man. He had nice stuff. Critics at the time and ever since

have found this to be indisputable proof of his hypocrisy.

How can a stoic have expensive ivory tables? Isn't it unphilosophical to have multiple

houses or servants? In Sanaka's view, the answer was no. Nobody said that stoic is a

meant of vow of poverty or needless deprivation. As he wrote, philosophy calls for plain living

not for penance. Our life should observe a happy medium between the ways of the sage and

the ways of the world at large.

Plain living is, to a certain degree, relative. A hundred dollar steak dinner to one person

is an insane luxury. To a person with a much larger salary and an indifferent social

set, having dinner at the same restaurant might be an unassuming, convenient choice, especially

if all their friends are chasing reservations at somewhere fancier and even more expensive.

That Mercedes they bought in cash, that's really safe and gets great gas mileage, might

actually be plain or living that it is for the person driving a brand new Nissan on a

lease when really they ought to be taking the train.

Stoicism is not, as Sanaka said, a form of self-flagulation. It's about responsibility

and sobriety. It's possible to be sober and rich just as it's possible to be middle

class and reckless. You only live once, money is earned to be spent. Just make sure you're

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