It’s right there. It’s not under lock and key. It’s not secret knowledge. There’s an unlimited amount—they’re making more and more of it everyday.
It’s there for everyone and anyone…and yet what do most people do? They ignore it.
Epictetus said “It’s impossible to learn that which you think you already know.” Truman said, “The only thing new in the world is the history you don’t know.” The two of these insights combine: You can’t learn history that you don’t take the time to look at, that you think you already understand.
History is full of men and women who wrestled with the same problems we’re struggling with today. History helps us avoid the pitfalls they fell into and take advantage of the opportunities before us. It can keep us from losing our minds over breaking news, because we better understand how the world actually works.
What you studied in school was only a start. What you’ve read in books is only a start. History must be returned to again and again, looked at from every angle, studied from every perspective. We can’t be "satisfied just getting the gist of it,” as Marcus Aurelius said—no, not if we really want to benefit from it. We have to immerse ourselves in it, really study it, really get it.
History is right there. Take it. Use it. Let it make you wiser.
P.S. Studying Marcus Aurelius’sMeditationschanged my life. I can’t repay enough the person who handed it to me, or the teachers who guided me through it. But I can pay it forward—I can be your guide.
For just three more days, when you buy our beautiful leatherbound edition ofMeditations, you’ll receive our How To Read Meditations Digital Guide—FREE. It’s your entry into Meditations Month: readMeditationsalongside me and our global community, go deep into Marcus’s wisdom, and discuss it in our private platform.
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