Book Review: Wisdom Takes Work by Ryan Holiday

A Capstone in the Stoic Virtues Series: Wisdom Takes Work by Ryan Holiday

Review by Charles Francis
Advanced copy provided by NetGalley
Estimated Read Time: ~4 minutes
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (5 out of 5 stars)

Epicurus understood something fundamental about the human condition when he wrote, "Let no one be slow to seek wisdom when they are young nor weary in the search thereof when they have grown old." Ryan Holiday opens Wisdom Takes Work—released October 21, 2025—with this ancient insight, and what follows is perhaps his most essential book to date: a capstone that brings his Stoic virtues series into sharper focus.

As an avid reader who holds authors to a high bar, I first encountered Holiday through The Daily Stoic, a book I return to annually and one that continues to reveal new layers with each reading. That initial encounter sparked a years-long journey into Stoicism that has led me through the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the letters of Seneca, Epictetus's Discourses, and contemporary interpreters like Massimo Pigliucci, Donald Robertson, Eric Cloward's Stoicism 101, Joseph Piercy's The Little Book of Stoic Wisdom, and Jonas Salzgeber's The Little Book of Stoicism. Holiday's work opened that door for me, and Wisdom Takes Work demonstrates why his voice remains indispensable for anyone walking this path.

Where The Obstacle Is the Way challenged us to face adversity head-on and Ego Is the Enemy warned against our greatest internal threat, this new book tackles the most elusive virtue of all: wisdom itself. Holiday's central argument is deceptively simple yet profound—wisdom cannot be hacked, shortcutted, or downloaded. It is, as the title promises, work. Hard work. The kind that demands we show up on good days and bad, on days when clarity comes easily and on those ugly days when we just want to quit. That's precisely the point. Through this book, I've come to see the pursuit of wisdom in a new light: it's not for the faint of heart if you truly want to become a better version of yourself. As an avid learner, it's works like this that help me grow.

The book's most compelling thread explores wisdom as inherently relational. "Is there anyone who is able to reach their potential totally alone?" Holiday asks. "Who can learn everything they need to learn by trial and error?" We must be willing to become apprentices, to seek out mentors, teachers, and companions. The world is our classroom, and the lessons we need will take time—we must be willing to devote that time. As someone who tends toward introversion, this section both resonated and challenged me. Holiday introduces Brian Eno's concept of "scenius"—the idea that we become better by being part of a group, culture, or ecosystem of influence. Goethe's words echo throughout: "Tell me who you consort with, and I will tell you who you are." For those of us who must push against our natural inclinations to find our scene, this wisdom cuts particularly deep. It's hard to get out and create that scene, but one must to gain wisdom.

What sets Holiday apart from more esoteric Stoic writers is his remarkable ability to make ancient wisdom accessible without diluting it. He moves effortlessly between Epictetus and Goethe, Jack London and Joan Didion, Voltaire and Marcus Aurelius, Clio and Sophocles, always grounding lofty concepts in recognizable human experience. He balances the ancients with contemporary figures—Martin Luther King Jr., Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, Lou Gehrig, Malcolm X—showing us what wisdom looks like in practice. He even uses cautionary tales like Elon Musk and Kyrie Irving as counterexamples of those who failed to heed wisdom's calling, reminding us that intelligence and success don't automatically confer wisdom.

As one of the ancients advised, if you want to learn about life, go talk to the dead. Holiday takes this seriously. History, he reminds us, isn't presented to us—it's something we unearth, piece by piece, book by book, visit by visit, question by question. As we read and study, we become pioneers, refugees, Union soldiers, both slaves and slave owners, colonizers and natives, Greeks and Romans. We must inhabit their worlds to understand them, see things through their eyes, feel the heat of battle, the fear of persecution, the hope of a better future. These are the lessons that will help us become wiser in our own lives.

This is a thinking person's game, Holiday insists. For those of us committed to becoming better versions of ourselves, works like this aren't optional—they're essential. This is Holiday's most mature and cohesive work—the book that reveals how The Obstacle Is the Way gave us courage, Ego Is the Enemy gave us humility, and The Daily Stoic gave us the daily practice to integrate it all. Wisdom Takes Work shows us why we needed those lessons in the first place: because wisdom, the crown jewel of the virtues, requires all of them.

For anyone embarking on or continuing a Stoic journey, Ryan Holiday's books aren't just recommended reading—they're required. Wisdom Takes Work reminds us that the pursuit of wisdom is lifelong, challenging, and ultimately, the most worthwhile work we can undertake. As I've learned through years of study and re-reading, there's always something new to uncover, always another layer of understanding to reach. That's not a limitation of the philosophy—it's the entire point.

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This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided by NetGalley. Wisdom Takes Work was published October 21, 2025.