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The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph

This book explores the ancient philosophy of Stoicism, teaching readers how to face and overcome obstacles by embracing them as opportunities for personal development and achievement. more

Author

Ryan Holiday
Ryan Holiday

Ryan Holiday (born June 16, 1987) is an American author, marketer, and advocate of Stoicism. He is best known for his books such as 'The Obstacle Is the Way' and 'The Daily Stoic,' which apply ancient philosophy to modern life. Holiday served as the director of marketing for American Apparel and has written for Forbes, Fast Company, and The New York Observer. His works have sold over 4 million copies worldwide and been translated into 30 languages. Through his books, podcast, and speaking engagements, Holiday promotes Stoic principles to help people navigate adversity, stress, and uncertainty. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his family. more

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“Cannabis sativa and its derivatives are strictly prohibited in Turkey, and the natural correlative of this proscription is that alcohol, far from being frowned upon as it is in other Moslem lands, is freely drunk; being a government monopoly it can be bought at any cigarette counter. This fact is no mere detail; it is of primary social importance, since the psychological effects of the two substances are diametrically opposed to each other. Alcohol blurs the personality by loosening inhibitions. The drinker feels, temporarily at least, a sense of participation. Kif abolishes no inhibitions; on the contrary it reinforces them, pushes the individual further back into the recesses of his own isolated personality, pledging him to contemplation and inaction. It is to be expected that there should be a close relationsip between the culture of a given society and the means used by its members to achieve release and euphoria. For Judaism and Christianity the means has always been alcohol; for Islam it has been hashish. The first is dynamic in its effects, the other static. If a nation wishes, however mistakenly, to Westernize itself, first let it give up hashish. The rest will follow, more or less as a manner of course. Conversely, in a Western country, if a whole segment of the population desires, for reasons of protest (as has happened in the United States), to isolate itself in a radical fashion from the society around it, the quickest and surest way is for it to replace alcohol by cannabis.”