Seneca teaches that when grieving, one should remember that the deceased loved you and would not want their memory to cause perpetual sadness, but rather to bring happiness and positive emotion.

The Stoics themselves had little respect for pen-and-ink philosophers; they were interested in the doers—how people actually lived up to ideals.

Reading every day has made Holiday successful, happy, and a better human being.

Seneca was near the end of his life when he wrote his letters, was an advisor to the emperor, and likely knew the emperor was going to kill him.

People are perpetually caught off guard by mortality and death of others, even the most Stoic people become overwhelmed by grief, sadness, and loss.

When Marcus Aurelius wrote Meditations, he was not thinking of readers—he was thinking of himself and the specific problems he was dealing with in his actual life.

When people claim Marcus Aurelius repeats himself too much in Meditations or is too hard on himself, they miss that he is hard on himself about the specific struggles he is personally dealing with.

Holiday publishes a desk calendar version of The Daily Stoic as well, extending the format to a physical desktop product.

Marcus Aurelius taught that if we give up the opinion that we are harmed, then the harm disappears—suggesting our perceptions change what is happening to us.

Holiday recommends subscribing to the Daily Stoic email, which sends one bit of Stoic wisdom for free every day to the largest community of Stoics in existence.

Holiday has sent a daily Stoic wisdom email every day for the last 6 years with no spam and ability to unsubscribe anytime.

Readers can sign up for the Daily Stoic email at dailystoic.com.

Seneca defines philosophical progress as 'I've begun to be a better friend to myself'.

We earn the respect of others by earning the respect of ourselves, by disdaining hardships, by conquering them, and by doing the hard work.

The Daily Stoic has sold millions of copies and spent weeks and weeks on bestseller lists while being translated into approximately 40 languages, demonstrating the power of Stoicism.

Seneca wrote three moving essays on grief called his Consolations, addressing his mother during his exile and two friends grieving losses, demonstrating kindness and patience rather than emotional suppression.

The Daily Stoic's success demonstrates that all Holiday did was add an organizational layer—one page a day with one Stoic quote, analysis, explanation, and illustrative story—yet this simple structure had enormous impact across millions of readers and 40+ languages.

Marcus Aurelius discusses Justice, self-discipline, wisdom, and courage while possessing enormous wealth and fame, demonstrating how Stoic philosophy applies at the highest levels of power and privilege.

James Stockdale was a fighter pilot shot down over Vietnam who consciously chose to apply Epictetus's philosophy while being imprisoned, tortured, and held in solitary confinement for seven-plus years in the Hanoi Hilton.

Marcus Aurelius's life and perspective might be expected to be totally foreign and incomprehensible to modern readers given he was the most powerful man 2,000 years ago with an enormous army and totally different customs, yet when reading him one finds his worldview is both peculiar to his extraordinary circumstances and incredibly applicable to all of us.