The most lucid minds in history have had something in common that has allowed them to control their emotions, avoid distractions, discover new ways of looking at the world and achieve all their goals. Zen Buddhist thinkers called it inner peace, an essential characteristic for samurai and monks alike. Stoics and Epicureans baptized it as ataraxia, a bastion against the passions of the crowd, indispensable for leadership and the search for truth. Ryan Holiday calls it stillness: the ability to maintain stability as the world turns chaotically around us. Stillness is the key. It describes a way to reach that state through the body, the mind and the spirit. From the work of thinkers ranging from Confucius, Marco Aurelio and Seneca to John Stuart Mill and Friedrich Nietzsche, Holiday explains that stillness is not mere inactivity, but the threshold that allows us to access mastery, discipline and concentration . Enriched with contemporary examples from leaders and artists such as Winston Churchill, Anne Frank, Tiger Woods, and Marina Abramovi and written in her characteristic direct and concise language, this book confirms Ryan Holiday’s talent for transmitting ancient wisdom in an accessible and relevant way for the new generations.