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Epictetus Month
GET THE GUIDE TO READING EPICTETUS
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August is Epictetus Month at Daily Stoic.
All month long we're doing a deep dive into the slave-turned-teacher who shaped the philosophy of Marcus Aurelius, the Stoic that every Stoic keeps returning to. Epictetus.
Marcus Aurelius didn't read Epictetus once and move on. You can see it in Meditations, the same ideas appear again and again, on anger, on difficult people, on doing his duty when nobody was watching. Not because Marcus had mastered them. Because he hadn't. He kept returning to Epictetus because the work was never finished.
Neither is yours.
Whether you're coming to Epictetus for the first time or returning to him after years, our How to Read Epictetus: A Daily Stoic Digital Guide meets you where you are. Fourteen modules pulling out his most essential lessons and showing you exactly how to apply them—not as ancient philosophy, but as a practical manual for the life you're actually living. Everything we've learned from hundreds of hours of research and writing, organized to help you read Epictetus the way Marcus did: not once, but until it actually changes how you live.
Your guide is your entry into Epictetus Month—including access to our private community discussion and Ryan Holiday's live Q&A on August 27th.
YOUR INVITE TO THE LIVE Q&A
Join the LIVE Epictetus Q&A with Ryan Holiday by purchasing before August 27th. This is a rare opportunity to ask him your questions and go deep into the text that sparked his interest in Stoicism over a decade ago.
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$48 $39
Two Ways to Join Epictetus Month
GET THE GUIDE TO READING EPICTETUS
- Gain instant access to our comprehensive guide to reading Epictetus
- Join the conversations all month long in our private community with other Stoics from across the globe and Ryan Holiday
- Get your invite to the LIVE Q&A with Ryan Holiday
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GET THE GUIDE + BOOK AND SAVE
-THIS MONTH ONLY, get 30% off our companion guide, How to Read Epictetus, when you purchase Discourses & Selected Writings.
-Includes instant access to the private community, and an invite to a LIVE Q&A with Ryan Holiday
$48 $39
Two Ways to Join Meditations Month
GET THE GUIDE
- Gain instant access to our comprehensive guide to reading Meditations
- Join the conversations all month long in our private community with other Stoics from across the globe and Ryan Holiday
- Get your invite to the LIVE Q&A with Ryan Holiday
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GET THE GUIDE + BOOK
AND SAVE
-THIS MONTH ONLY, recieve our How to Read Meditations Digital Guide for FREE when you purchase our Leatherbound Edition of Meditations
-Includes access to the private community, and an invite to a LIVE Q&A with Ryan Holiday
$149 $119
GET THE GUIDE + BOOK
AND SAVE
-$10 OFF our How to Read Meditations Digital Guide when you purchase our hardcover Meditations, featuring the Gregory Hays translation
-Includes access to the private community, and an invite to a LIVE Q&A with Ryan Holiday
$54 $44
The Philosopher Who Inspired Marcus
Born a slave in AD 55, Epictetus proved that true freedom is mastering your response to fate. His lessons, captured by his student Arrian, remain the most practical playbook in Stoicism.
- Action over theory. No essays, just hard-hitting dialogue and drills.
- Universal relevance. From emperors to soldiers to entrepreneurs, his teachings cut across rank and era.
- Modern champions. Admiral James Stockdale, Tim Ferriss, and of course Ryan Holiday credit Epictetus for life-changing perspective.
This August, we’re honoring the legacy of Epictetus with Epictetus Month—a month-long journey into Discourses and Enchiridion, guided by Ryan Holiday and joined by Stoics all over the world.
And on August 27th, Ryan will host an invite-only LIVE Q&A—a rare chance to ask your biggest questions and go deep into the text that’s shaped many modern Stoics.
"I first read Epictetus almost 15 years ago now. He changed my life when I first encountered him."
– Ryan Holiday
“...on my bedside table, no matter what carrier I was aboard, were my Epictetus books.”
– James Stockdale, Thoughts of a Philosophical Fighter Pilot
“Among the Roman Stoics, two are especially noteworthy. One is Epictetus and one is Marcus Aurelius.”
– Dr. Michael Sugrue
When I was 19 years old, I nervously asked someone I admired if he had any book recommendations. He said he’d been studying a Stoic philosopher named Epictetus and that I should check him out.
It was my introduction to Epictetus, to the Stoics, to the philosophy that would completely change the course of my life.
I’m not the only one. In the opening pages of Meditations, Marcus Aurelius expresses gratitude to his philosophy teacher Rusticus “for introducing me to Epictetus’s lectures—and loaning me his own copy.”
The life of a future emperor was changed by the wisdom of a Greek slave—Epictetus’s very name, in Greek (Epiktetos) is quite literally, “acquired one”—who had triumphed over torture and exile, whose lectures were fortuitously recorded by a student in the early second century (and, just as unpredictably, survive to be read by us today).
One of the most fascinating things about this Greek slave is that, in addition to Marcus, Epictetus ended up intersecting with three other Roman emperors: Nero, Domitian, and Hadrian. Yet he remains far less widely known than the emperor whose philosophical worldview he helped shape.
Epictetus was your favorite philosopher’s favorite philosopher.
His teachings changed the course of Marcus Aurelius’s life. They changed the course of mine.
In fact, they can change the whole course of your life too.
— Ryan Holiday
Our Guide to Reading Epictetus (The Right Way)
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Reading Epictetus can change your life—but only if you know how to read him.
That’s why we created the How to Read Epictetus Guide—a complete, 14-module course that shows you how to understand the teachings of Epictetus and put them into practice.
Here’s what’s included when you get the guide:
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FOR EPICTETUS MONTH ONLY - A private community of readers going through the guide with you
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FOR EPICTETUS MONTH ONLY - invite to a LIVE Q&A with Ryan Holiday to ask him your questions and go deep into the text that sparked his interest in Stoicism
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14 in-depth modules you can work through at your own pace
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Lessons from Ryan Holiday, breaking down key passages and life lessons
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Expert commentary and additional material from top philosophers and thinkers
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Journaling prompts and reflection exercises to deepen your engagement with the text
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This isn’t a course. It’s a practice. It’s a way of living.
*All courses and challenges are non-refundable
The Daily Stoic Preferred Edition of Epictetus' Lectures
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Epictetus urged his students not to admire wisdom, but to embody it. He didn’t care how much you knew. He cared what you did.
You may not control your health, your wealth, your reputation, or your circumstances. But you do control your mind, your will, your ability to choose how you respond to what happens.
That was the freedom Epictetus discovered. That was the freedom he taught. And it’s that freedom—the one that cannot be taken away—that we’re here to learn how to pursue for ourselves in reading Discourses & Selected Writings.
Why is this our favorite translation?
- Easy to read, modern translation that keeps the original meanings
- Portable paperback—perfect for your personal marginalia
This edition is the perfect complement to our guide.
The Hardcover Edition of Meditations
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The timeless book of practical and philosophical wisdom for anyone seeking to lead a meaningful life, available in hardcover.
- Featuring the Gregory Hays translation
- Includes the Foreword by bestselling author Ryan Holiday
- Introduction by Gregory Hays that outlines Marcus’s life and career, the essentials of Stoic doctrine, the style and construction of the Meditations, and the work’s ongoing influence
SAVE 20% when you buy the hardcover edition of Meditations AND our How to Read Marcus Aurelis' Meditations Guide.
In 2006, I bought my first copy of the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius. I was 19 years old. I didn’t know who Marcus Aurelius was (besides the old guy in Gladiator), and I certainly didn’t know whether it would be the right translation or not. I suppose it was luck that I got the Gregory Hays translation—though the Stoics would say it was fated—but what arrived would change my life.
Marcus was clearly fond of the philosopher Heraclitus (he quotes him a lot), who said that we never step in the same river twice. Because we are always changing. It’s equally true that we never read the same book twice—because while the contents don’t change, we do. Our circumstances change. The world changes.
I still have that first copy of Meditations. The cover is taped back on. Every page is marked or folded. Nearly every passage has something noted or underlined. I’m technically what Stephen Marche calls a “centireader”—reading Marcus Aurelius well over one hundred times—but actually, I’ve never read the same Meditations twice. Each time, I notice new things. A passage I highlighted before now strikes me for a different reason. A line that once seemed irrelevant to my life suddenly describes something I’m going through perfectly. Something I thought I understood turns out to seemingly mean something else entirely.
In Book 6, Marcus writes, “Fight to be the person philosophy tried to make you.”
This is a lifelong fight we are in. Marcus even talks about it towards the end of Meditations. He asks himself, How old are you? How much longer are you going to keep falling short? When are you going to get this together? It was the battle of his life. Up until the day he died, he was struggling with this. But he always kept fighting.
And that’s what we have to do. That’s why I keep reading and rereading Meditations.
Fight for those four virtues, those “touchstones of goodness.”
Fight for that part of you that wants to be good, courageous, disciplined, and wise.
Fight to be the person philosophy wants you to be.
— Ryan Holiday
Add Meditations for Just $10
Only during Epictetus Month, add the paperback edition of Meditations to your order of How to Read Epictetus and Discourses and Selected Writings for only $10!