The Best Stoic Books to Start With
The best Stoic books fall into two groups. First the three ancient sources, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the Letters of Seneca, and the Discourses and…
Curiosity, growth, and the courage to try.
The best Stoic books fall into two groups. First the three ancient sources, the Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the Letters of Seneca, and the Discourses and…
Chrysippus of Soli was the third head of the Stoic school and the thinker who turned it into a system. He wrote hundreds of books, built the logic that held…
Cleanthes of Assos was the second head of the Stoic school, the man who kept it alive after Zeno. A former boxer who hauled water by night to pay for philosophy by…
Stoicism rests on a handful of core principles: that virtue is the only true good, that some things are in our control and most are not, that we should live in…
The Enchiridion is Epictetus’s handbook, a short manual of Stoic practice compiled by his student Arrian. In about 53 brief chapters it lays out the dichotomy of…
Stoicism never really died. It quietly shaped founding fathers, war heroes, and bestselling authors, and in the last decade it has surged back into the mainstream…
Hierocles was a Stoic philosopher of the second century AD, best known for one unforgettable image: the circles of concern. He pictured each of us at the center of…
Stoicism is a philosophy, not a religion. It has no church, no clergy, no scripture you must believe, and no promise of heaven. It does speak of the divine, but as…
Letters from a Stoic is a collection of 124 letters Seneca wrote to his friend Lucilius near the end of his life. Part personal correspondence, part philosophy…
Musonius Rufus was a Roman Stoic philosopher of the first century, the teacher of Epictetus, and one of the most practical voices the school ever produced. He…
On Anger is Seneca’s treatise in three parts on the most destructive of the passions. Written to his brother Novatus, it dissects where anger comes from, argues…
AI is advancing at an exponential rate, and within a few years machines will likely outperform us at most tasks. But when the machines can do everything else…
Seneca was a Roman statesman, playwright, and Stoic philosopher who lived from around 4 BC to 65 AD. He served as advisor to the emperor Nero, grew enormously…
Stoicism comes with its own vocabulary, much of it old Greek and Latin. This glossary gathers the key terms in plain English, from the four virtues to ideas like…
The word stoic has two meanings that often get confused. With a small s, stoic means enduring hardship without showing feeling, a kind of grim emotional flatness…
Stoicism and Buddhism arose worlds apart yet reached strikingly similar conclusions. Both trace suffering to our own craving and judgments, both teach that…
Stoicism and Christianity grew up in the same Roman world and share a surprising amount of moral ground, providence, inner virtue, human brotherhood, and acceptance…
Stoicism and Buddhism are two ancient philosophies that arrived at strikingly similar advice from opposite ends of the world. Both teach that much of our suffering…
Stoicism and Cynicism are the two ancient Greek schools that built their whole philosophy on virtue. They are closely related for a simple reason, Stoicism grew…
Stoicism and Epicureanism were the two great rival philosophies of the ancient world. Both promised a calm, happy life, and both agreed it comes from inside you…
Stoicism and existentialism both ask how to live in a difficult, uncertain world, and both put your choices at the center. But they start from opposite views of the…
Stoicism is not nihilistic. In fact it is close to the opposite. Nihilism says nothing matters and life has no built in meaning. Stoicism says the universe is…
Sympatheia is a Greek word the Stoics used for the idea that the whole universe is a single living system, with every part connected to every other. People, nature…
The view from above is a Stoic mental exercise where you picture yourself, and your problems, from high overhead. You zoom out until your worries shrink against the…
The word stoic has two meanings that often get tangled. With a small s, stoic describes a person who stays calm and uncomplaining through pain or hardship. With a…
The big tech companies are building machines that outperform humans at coding, diagnosing, and writing, and most of us sense the ground shifting beneath our feet…
Stoicism was unusually open for its age. It held that virtue is one and the same in everyone, so women could pursue wisdom on equal terms with men. Few ancient…
Here is a question for you. Have you ever felt uneasy after a black cat crossed your path? Avoided the thirteenth floor of a hotel? Knocked on wood after saying…
Zeno of Citium was the founder of Stoicism. A merchant who lost everything in a shipwreck, he turned to philosophy in Athens around 300 BCE and began teaching at…
If you see creativity everywhere, in music, art, business, life, and you want to be part of it but feel paralyzed by the pressure to be original, this is for you…
School is like swimming in a pool – contained, controlled, with clear lanes and rules. Every lap has a defined start and finish. But real life? Real life is like…
I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. My friends are facing these huge life decisions - some just moved to a new country, others are deciding whether to have…
3-4 times a week, I drag myself to Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu training. 2-3 times a week, I fumble through guitar chords. I spend some mornings in the pool, and some doing…
Here’s the beautiful thing about life: it’s long. Really long. Think about it. If you’re 30, you’ve only had about 10 years of adult memories. With a life…
A degree doesn’t make you educated. Neither does watching YouTube tutorials or completing online courses. These are tools, not destinations. They’re pieces of a…
A friend of mine used to feel like his life was getting a bit boring, and he just didn’t feel alive anymore. So, one day, he decided to change that by doing a…
You’re not famous, and that’s unlikely to change. More than 100 billion people have lived and died on Earth—really, how many of them were famous? So, why treat your…
Have you noticed how everyone is slowly becoming the same person? Scroll for a minute and you will see it. The same jokes, the same three vacation spots, the same…
This beautiful haiku captures the essence of the journey towards achieving meaningful, seemingly insurmountable goals with patience and perseverance. Imagine…
There’s more to Joe Rogan than meets the eye. Sure, he’s a brilliant stand-up comedian, a seasoned MMA color commentator, and most notably, the host of the…
As young adults navigating life, we often find ourselves looking at peers and feeling a sense of jealousy. At its core, jealousy often stems from an unmet need or…
Once upon a time, all the people you know today were strangers. It’s a strange thought, isn’t it? You, me, we’ve all been there — being the “new kid” on the block…
Let me share with you the story of my friend, whom we’ll call Alan. Alan had a stable job as a software engineer, working for a renowned tech company. But there was…
And unveil the hidden wonders in the mundane world Let’s face it, life can get pretty boring when you’re stuck in a rut. You wake up, go to work, come home, and…
A secret the 1% know but the 99% don’t What is the Highest Value in your life right now? It could be related to your work, or it can be something else too. It could…
And here’s what you need to do to fix it. Reason: Your Anticipation Imagine this. It’s a Sunday morning. You’ve had a long week. There was so much work to do, but…
This Is Why You Should Spend Every Penny You Have. Recently, I showed my friends my savings and investments, which I was so proud of, but they weren’t impressed. In…
Look at you, caught in that daily grind. You know the one - the ceaseless hustle for that promotion, that pay raise, that upgrade. You bounce from job to job…
Here are some life-changing questions to ask yourself: Who are you? What do you stand for? What’s your purpose in life? What are your goals? What did the world tell…
Pick someone wise as a model or as an inspiration for your actions. It could be your father, sister, or even your god. There’s no need to completely imitate but…
Have you ever seen an interview of a bank robber, a con artist, or a thief? They don’t always consider what they did wrong. Sometimes it could be their ego, but…
Everyone comes from a different background, has different experiences, and therefore sees things differently. I am sure your father or mother doesn’t think exactly…
During our teen years, many of us were omnivores, but later on, arguments against meat and the environmental benefits of a plant-based diet changed our minds, too…
Some scientists once believed atoms were the smallest particle before sub-atomic particles got discovered. Many thought that Disney and Marvel’s movies were real…
We spend countless hours on YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, and other social media apps even though we are not needed to. We feel bad if we miss something as…
We’re in this world where the internet is changing our minds, and all we need is a google search to get the answer. We don’t even use our creative side that much…
We all love making new good habits, and sometimes that’s all we can read and worry about. For most parts, habits are good but, they are wrong if they become your…
Did you already know what you needed to do for your first job? for your business? I am sure not. We didn’t know anything when we were born; we learned through our…
Don’t fear death; instead, fear the fear of death. Think about all the things and adventures you are missing out on because of your fear of dying. The fear of death…
Nothing around you is standing still, even the things that look permanent. Your body is quietly rebuilding itself, your city is shifting, your relationships are…
One lifetime isn’t enough to explore it all. It’s a big world, and life is short. But, don’t explore this world for social media or to show it to your friends…
Accept nature’s order just like you’d accept a doctor’s order and accept any bitter medicine a doctor prescribes. Accept nature’s way of healing you. Nature is the…
