You can lose your money. A business can fail. Your beauty can fade. Your body decays with time.
The Stoics knew, first hand, that you can be sent into exile. Your reputation can be unfairly impugned. A tyrant can throw you in prison. They can even take your life.
But while you're alive? Barring some traumatic brain injury or illness, wisdom remains your own. No one can take away what you've learned. No one can make you forget philosophy. No one can strip you of your own experience or of the hard-won insights of the Stoics. It is the one thing that is always ours.
This is why we study, why we read, why we codify these lessons via discussions and on the page. Because it's priceless. Because it's the one thing that keeps. No matter what happens in the world or what happens to us, it is of value. It is our possession. It is our safety net. Our refuge. What the Stoic philosopher Pierre Hadot describes as "the inner citadel."
In today's chaotic world, so rampant with uncertainty and upheaval, developing this inner fortress of wisdom is more valuable than ever. Wisdom isn't something we're born with or given—it's something we must work toward, something we must cultivate through continuous effort and real-world application. That's why we all find that you can't spell learned without earned.
While knowledge does keep, we must keep at it. Wisdom is thus not a one-time achievement, but a lifelong pursuit. Only by putting our wisdom into practice do we find our blind spots, do we discover where to refocus our training. Even as an old man, Marcus Aurelius was chiding himself "not to be satisfied with just getting the gist of it." Instead he was seen leaving the palace to study with the philosopher Sextus and "learn that which I do not yet know."
Learn. Apply. Repeat.
This is how we not only cultivate wisdom, but keep it.
What this looks like in practice, and how we can systematically build this inner fortress of wisdom for ourselves, is what Ryan Holiday explores in his new book Wisdom Takes Work: Learn. Apply. Repeat. Drawing on the lives of great thinkers like Montaigne, Seneca, Lincoln, and Joan Didion, the book is filled with the insights of some of history's wisest people, and how we can follow in their footsteps.
Wisdom Takes Work officially comes out in less than 3 weeks! In the meantime, we have a limited supply of signed, numbered first-edition copies available for preorder now.
Preorders make a huge difference for authors (and bookstores). To thank you for supporting Wisdom Takes Work early, we've put together some special bonuses you won't find anywhere else.
These are only available during the preorder period—once the book is released, they're gone.
Here's what you can get:
Two BONUS chapters
A LIVE Q&A with Ryan Holiday
An extended, annotated bibliography
A signed page from the original manuscript
The Spotify playlist Ryan listened to while writing the book
An invite to a philosophical dinner in Bastrop, TX with Ryan and special guests*
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