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Welcome to the Daily Stoke. For each day, we read a short passage designed to help you cultivate the strength, insight, wisdom necessary for living good 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.

This is what Cicero missed. On the surface, Cicero appears the perfect stoic. He studied with all the right teachers. He served in office for decades. He was friends with Cato,

Deodatus, the old stoic philosopher, even died in Cicero's house and left his estate to him. But it's ironic that Cicero, the author of a book called Stoic Paradoxes, would himself fail to embody a paradox that goes to the core of the philosophy.

Cicero, like Marcus Aurelius, and Ceneca, and Cato, was deeply active in politics, active in business, active in life. They had wives, they had money, they had books, they published, they had power.

But what they also had, which Cicero never seemed to be able to master, was a stillness within all these activities. Sure, Marcus Aurelius held incredible power, and Ceneca had incredible wealth.

What they thankfully lacked was the sense of desperation and lust that came to define Cicero. Cicero needed. His two most outstanding qualities, besides his brilliance, was what observers called his Philadelphia and Philadelphia, his love of fame and honor.

Meanwhile, Marcus Aurelius and Ceneca made the best of the good fortune they found in life, but there was a sense that they could jettison it in a moment's notice.

The true Stoic paradox is that the Stoic has, but does not need. The Stoic is active in a noisy world full of craving, but manages to be at peace, despite it all. They are moving upward and onwards always, and yet they are still.

Where does this stillness come from? It comes from virtue. Marcus Aurelius knew what he stood for, he knew what was important. Ceneca believed in serving the state and doing his duty, even if that meant working for someone who could not have respected.

Cicero, on the other hand, was more likely to put his finger to the wind to find out what he believed. He served his own interests more than the republics.

He needed to achieve greatness. That's why he was always doing and compromising and shattering. Ultimately, his painful demise was defined by this uncertainty.

Should he leave Rome or stay? Should he prostrate before Octavian or Mark Antony? Should he face death bravely or flee? He wavered, he hesitated, he left and came back, and then finally was overtaken by his enemies outside Rome and decapitated.

It is wonderful to be talented, it is wonderful to achieve, a stoke can have both those things, but they don't need them. A stoke can be active, but they have to be capable of spiritual stillness or virtue of principled confidence.

Cicero lacked this, Marcus Aurelius didn't. Who will you be?

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