Hey, prime members, you can listen to the Daily Stoke podcast early and add free on Amazon music. Download the app today.

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.

We all need monuments to guide us. Nobody cared about statues more than the Greeks and the Romans. In fact, the only reason we know what many of the Stoics look like is because they were preserved in marble by sculptors many thousands of years ago.

It wasn't just philosophers who knew the value of statues. Leaders put up statues in nearly every important place within the realms they ruled so that we might look upon and be inspired by the deeds and principles of the great men and women that they honored.

In 175 AD, Marcus Aurelius was honored with the creation of a bronze statue depicting him on top of a horse addressing his troops, perhaps following some great victory on the battlefield.

This place in the heart of Rome on Capitoline Hill, bronze equestrian statues like this one were commonly created to laude the most notable Romans, yet this is the only statue of a pre-Christian emperor to survive to the modern era.

While dozens of other statues were being melted down to make coins or destroyed by revolutionaries, this statue remained on display through the centuries.

In fact, it was Michelangelo in the Renaissance at the height of his powers as an artist who designed a new base for it where it stands to this day.

And we are all the better for this because each generation needs guidance. We need to be called to honor the greatness of our past when the case of some monuments reminded of the failures and mistakes that humanity has made.

We need to see intangible form the principles that we hold dear as people, that we aspire to mirror in our own lives.

In 1863, the English writer Matthew Arnold wrote about why the endurance of the symbols of Marcus Aurelius are so important and what a grand tradition it remains.

He said long after his death, this bust was to be seen in the houses of private men through the wide Roman Empire.

And maybe the vulgar part of human nature which bizzies itself with the semblance and doings of living sovereigns.

It is its nobler part which bizzies itself with those of the dead. These busts of Marcus Aurelius in the homes of Gaul, Britain and Italy bear witness not to the intimate frivolous curiosity about princes and palaces, but to their reverential memory of the passage of a great man upon the earth.

A nation and era is judged by the monuments it erects just as a home is judged by the mementos and family artifacts hung on its walls and displayed on its shelves.

So that's the question for the world and for you as an individual today. What statues are you putting up? Who are you honoring? Who's presence is inspiring you to follow in their example?

What is calling you to be the person you know that you can be? We've just released our newest daily stoic creation to help you keep in mind the example of Marcus Aurelius.

It's a limited edition bust modeled after one that I actually keep in my own library on my desk. This hand sculpted bust is individually hand numbered with a beautiful vert-agreced finish.

It's mounted on a black marble base and it comes wrapped in a green velour pouch along with a signed certificate of authenticity.

We've only had the sculptor produce a limited quantity from his original clay model. So if you're interested, check it out now at dailystoic.com slash statue.

And you can also check out a really cool video showing how it's made. If you're looking for a statue to put up to inspire you, I think this is a pretty good one.

...