This Is How The Impossible Became Possible

The Daily Stoic

Daily Stoic | Backyard Ventures

Education, 694393, Daily Stoic, Society & Culture, Stoic, Stoicism, Self-improvement, Business, Stoic Philosophy, Philosophy, Ryan Holiday

4.6 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 2 July 2025

⏱️ 6 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What Epictetus learned in his fascinating life—beginning in slavery and culminating in a legacy as one of the most influential philosophers of all time—was simple, profound, and enduring. It’s why countless Roman families sent their children to learn from Epictetus at his school in Nicopolis. And that’s why we’re spending this month doing a deep dive into Epictetus—because if reading him changed Marcus Aurelius’ life, how might he change yours?

💡 We designed our How To Read Epictetus (A Daily Stoic Guide) as a personal field guide —part book club, part masterclass, part daily practice. It’s designed to help you not just read the words of Epictetus, but live them—to turn his timeless wisdom into real change in your own life and the lives of those around you.

And if you get the guide before July 26th, you’ll receive a private invitation to an exclusive LIVE Q&A with Ryan Holiday, where he’ll go deep on all things Epictetus, Stoicism, and how to apply these ideas right now, in today’s world. Head to dailystoic.com/epictetuscourse to learn more and get your book, guide, and bundle today!

📖 Preorder the final book in Ryan Holiday's The Stoic Virtues Series: "Wisdom Takes Work": https://store.dailystoic.com/pages/wisdom-takes-work

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a stoic-inspired meditation
0:11.7	designed to help you find strength and insight and wisdom into everyday life.
0:18.8	Each one of these episodes is based on the 2,000-year-old philosophy that has guided some of
0:24.2	history's greatest men and women to help you learn from them, to follow in their example,
0:33.0	and to start your day off with a little dose of courage and discipline and justice and wisdom.
0:40.3	For more, visit Dailystoic.com. Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs.
0:59.6	Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy, customizable themes that let you build your brand.
1:07.2	Marketing tools that get your products out there integrated shipping solutions that actually
1:11.2	save you time from startups to scale ups online in person and on the go shopify is made for entrepreneurs
1:18.1	like you sign up for your one dollar a month trial at shopify dot com slash setup this is how the impossible became possible.
1:30.0	Look, it doesn't just happen.
1:33.3	People tend not to handle power well,
1:35.5	and what we know from history is that they absolutely cannot handle absolute power.
1:40.4	Well, so how did it happen then?
1:42.6	How did Marcus Aurelius remain good? How did he manage to remain a master of himself when he was literally the master of millions?
1:52.6	Well, it's because he was handed a book as a teenager. His philosophy teacher thought he would benefit from reading Epictetus's lectures, which Marcus tells us, his teacher loaned him
2:02.3	from his own shelf. It was this remarkable bit of philosophy, the teachings of a slave,
2:08.8	which properly trained and oriented Marcus Aurelius to be the richest, most powerful, most famous
2:14.2	human on earth. How crazy is that? Except it's not crazy because Epictetus knew not just
2:22.0	adversity in pain, having spent 30 years of his life as a slave, but he also knew temptation and
2:27.7	corruption and vanity, having spent the bulk of his life attached to an owner who worked directly
2:32.6	with the Emperor Nero.
	...

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