To Find Pleasure, Look for Purpose
The Daily Stoic
Daily Stoic | Wondery
4.6 • 4.7K Ratings
🗓️ 8 March 2023
⏱️ 3 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
It might seem like the Stoics didn’t have fun, didn’t experience pleasure. They did write, after all, quite a bit about the emptiness of chasing sex or money or fine wines. But just because they scorned excess luxury and comfort doesn’t mean their lives were empty and joyless.
Quite the contrary.
In his book The Expanding Circle, the philosopher Peter Singer (who was on a great episode of the Daily Stoic podcast recently if you haven’t listened) explains that what they were actually doing was trying to avoid the paradox of hedonism.
✉️ Sign up for the Daily Stoic email: https://dailystoic.com/dailyemail
🏛 Check out the Daily Stoic Store for Stoic inspired products, signed books, and more.
📱 Follow us: Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook
See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoic Podcast early and add free on Amazon |
| 0:04.8 | music. Download the app today. |
| 0:10.9 | Welcome to the Daily Stoic Podcast, where each day we bring you a passage of ancient wisdom |
| 0:16.6 | designed to help you find strength, insight, and wisdom every day life. |
| 0:20.8 | Each one of these passages is based on the 2,000 year old philosophy that has guided some |
| 0:25.1 | of history's greatest men and women. |
| 0:27.8 | For more, you can visit us dailystoic.com. |
| 0:36.8 | To find pleasure, look for purpose. |
| 0:40.4 | It might seem like the Stoics didn't have any fun. |
| 0:42.6 | They didn't experience pleasure. |
| 0:44.6 | They did right after all quite a bit about the emptiness of chasing sex or money or fine |
| 0:49.1 | wines. |
| 0:50.1 | But just because they scorned luxury and comfort doesn't mean their lives were empty |
| 0:54.0 | and joyless. |
| 0:55.3 | Quite the contrary. |
| 0:56.3 | In his book, The Expanding Circle, the philosopher Peter Singer, who was a great recent guest |
| 1:01.3 | on the Daily Stoic Podcast, if you haven't listened, he explained that what they were actually |
| 1:05.8 | trying to do was avoid the paradox of hedonism. |
| 1:10.2 | It's interesting, he writes, that those who seek their own pleasure do not find it and |
| 1:14.1 | those who do not seek it find it anyway. |
| 1:16.6 | The pleasures of a self-centered life eventually fall and the drive for still higher levels |
| 1:21.9 | of luxury and delight brings not lasting satisfaction. |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Daily Stoic | Wondery, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of Daily Stoic | Wondery and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.