Courage is an obvious choice for being the most important of the four Stoic virtues. It was Aristotle who said courage was the mother of all the rest. In a world that’s scary, that’s dangerous, that’s difficult, it’s a brave thing to go out there and do what needs to be done.
Self-discipline is another obvious choice because, well, you can’t do anything without it. And—as Aristotle also pointed out—courage that isn’t checked by temperance can quite easily veer into recklessness.
Justice, Marcus Aurelius said, is “the source of all the other virtues.” The Stoics were clear: the point of philosophy, the point of life, is to direct a person toward doing what’s right. Courage in service of injustice? Discipline aimed at selfish ends? That’s not what Marcus, or Epictetus, or Zeno would have championed.
Then of course, making these distinctions between the virtues—making sense of what the ancients said about them—requires no small amount of wisdom. This critical and all-too-rare ability—discernment—is not something anyone is born with, and yet all the virtues are born from it. Doesn’t the development of this ability, of wisdom, require courage and discipline and justice? It most certainly does.
The fact that you can argue for any of those four as the “most important” virtue—as I did when announcing each of the books in the Stoic Virtues series: Courage Is Calling, Discipline Is Destiny, Right Thing, Right Now, and Wisdom Takes Work—is a testament to their interrelationship. To their importance in living a good life.
As Zeno said, the four virtues are “inseparable but yet distinct and different from one another.” Still, it’s hard to know where one ends and another begins…which is sort of the whole point. They are not supposed to be pursued in isolation; instead, they come together under the idea of virtue itself. They are pieces of a larger goal, individual notes in a piece of music.
I started this series in 2019 and now, more than seven years later, for the first time, all four books—each an instant New York Times bestseller—are available together in the Stoic Virtues Series Box Set, available for pre-order ahead of the release date on May 19th. Signed copies are available exclusively through the Daily Stoic.
Individually, each book is a prescription for a specific virtue—together, they become a manual for living, drawing on literature, philosophy, and history to show not just what these virtues mean, but how to practice them every day.
Throughout the series, fascinating stories of historical figures like Marcus Aurelius, Florence Nightingale, Abraham Lincoln, and Frederick Douglass show the power of these virtues in action, demonstrating how we all can be improved by them—while simultaneously improving the world around us.
The Stoic Virtues Seriesteaches the timeless principles of courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom—and our Four Virtues Medallion serves as a daily reminder to embody them in your own life.
This month only: pre-order the signed Box Set with the Four Virtues Medallion, and get $10 off your order.
“If, at some point in your life, you should come across anything
better than justice, truth, self-control, courage—it must be an extraordinary thing indeed.”
–Marcus Aurelius
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