Wisdom Takes Work

In this much-anticipated final installment in the Stoic Virtues series, Ryan Holiday makes the case for the virtue on which all other virtues depend.

Of all the stoic virtues – courage, discipline, justice, and wisdom – wisdom is the one we most desperately lack. Literacy is declining in our nation’s schools. Most adults read less than a single book per year. The great statesman and philosophers of the past would not be fooled, as we are, by headlines or appearances or the primal pull of tribalism. They knew too much of history, of their own flaws, of the need for collaboration to do any of that. That’s wisdom – and we need it more than ever.

Wisdom is Ryan Holiday’s guiding principle, and Wisdom Takes Work is the culmination of all his work. Drawing on fascinating stories of the ancient and modern figures alike, Holiday shows how to cultivate wisdom through reading, contemplation, and discernment. Through the lives of Montaigne, Seneca, Joan Didion, Abraham Lincoln, and others, Holiday teaches us how to listen more than we talk, to think with nuance, to ruthlessly question our own beliefs, and to develop a method of self-education. He argues convincingly for the necessity of mental struggle and warns against taking shortcuts that deprive us of real knowledge. And through the lives of Elon Musk and Donald Trump he shows us how dangerous power and intelligence can be without the tempering influence of wisdom. 

An absence of curiosity and prudence is a catastrophe for all of us, argues Ryan Holiday. This incredibly timely book both diagnoses the greatest problem of our current moment and offers solutions for the way forward. Wisdom is work – but it’s worth it.