The key ideas

Courage Is Calling

Ryan Holiday, 2021

On the prairie, young Ulysses Grant hears the howling of a huge pack, but when he rides closer, he sees two wolves. Ryan Holiday gathers stories like this about fear, courage and heroism and interprets them through Stoicism. This isn’t a scientific study but the author’s reflection on real-life examples: how fear inflates a threat, why courage can last just a few seconds, and how it differs from recklessness.

Who it is for

For anyone who keeps putting off an important decision out of fear, and for everyone who enjoys historical stories about courage — from Florence Nightingale to Charles de Gaulle.

At the root of most fears is what other people will think of us.

What the book is about

An ancient Greek myth tells how young Hercules came to a crossroads. One goddess promised him an easy life without fear or pain. The other called him to a long road of sacrifice and frightening moments that would make him who he could become. Hercules chose the second.

Ryan Holiday opens his series of books on the four virtues with this scene. The Stoics and many other philosophers called these the cardinal virtues: courage, temperance, justice and wisdom. The word “cardinal” comes from the Latin cardo, “hinge”. In the author’s image, the door to a good life hangs on these qualities.

Courage Is Calling is the first book in the series, and it has three parts. Fear, which keeps you from acting. Courage, which helps you step past it. And heroism, when a person takes a risk for others.

First, a word about what kind of book this is. It isn’t research but a collection of historical stories retold by the author and read through Stoicism. The stories don’t prove anything as a law. They show what courage can look like in real life.

Idea 1. A calling that waits for years

In a childhood drawing made by her aunt, Florence Nightingale is about four years old. Her older sister holds their mother’s hand, while Florence walks on her own. Holiday sees in this a confidence that adults later take away little by little: the world is dangerous, and a girl is supposed to behave differently.

At sixteen, Florence felt a calling to serve people. Later she realized she wanted to care for the sick. For a wealthy English family of that time, this looked almost like a disgrace, and her relatives were against it. More than fifteen years passed before she made up her mind. Then came the Crimean War and her work in military hospitals, which made her famous.

As Holiday sees it, those years went into a struggle with fear: what her family would say, what society would think, what she would have to sacrifice.

For years, someone puts off switching to their dream profession because their relatives don’t take it seriously.

In Holiday’s logic, fear can look like prudence and take years away. Sometimes it’s easiest to spot by how long the same decision keeps getting put off.

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About the author

Ryan Holiday is an American writer and popularizer of Stoicism, author of The Obstacle Is the Way and founder of the Daily Stoic project. Courage Is Calling opens his series of books on the four virtues.

All books by this author: Ryan Holiday

Terms from the book

  • Stoicism
  • Calling
  • Temperance
  • Cardinal virtues: The four main virtues of ancient philosophy: courage, temperance, justice and wisdom. The name comes from the Latin cardo, “hinge”.
  • Courage: In Holiday’s book, the willingness to act despite fear and risk. This is the author’s framework, not a psychological definition.
  • Heroism: Within the book’s framework, the highest form of courage: taking a risk for other people or a common cause, not for yourself.

All terms

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