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Letters from a Stoic (Penguin Classics)?
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Sure, I learned that my anxiety won’t go away but I’ve learned to live with it. Over time it gets easier to manage. When I get thoughts like “what if she doesn't want me anymore” I tell myself that I would be ok. I would be in pain than find someone new
There's no way around pain tho. You just have to accept that sometimes you’re going to get hurt but love is worth it.
I recommend reading this book
Maybe Seneca`s letters (amazon link). Here one example of what you will find in his work:
“Men do not care how nobly they live, but only how long, although it is
within the reach of every man to live nobly, but within no man's power
to live long.”
or
​
“As it is with a play, so it is with life - what matters is not how long the acting lasts, but how good it is.”
Yes!!!
Philosophy: Love of Wisdom.
I've found that the stoics, especially, are really great. The Greeks were constantly looking to answer the question of "How, then, should we live?" It's the same question that we look to answer as we turn away from a TSCC church, isn't it? You can read one of Seneca's "Letters from a Stoic" every day in place of scripture and get more out of it than you ever did from BoM.
MOTD #28: "A consciousness of wrongdoing is the first step to salvation."
Seneca’s Letters are a must read for Stoics. Amazon Link
Want to read more books on Stoicism? checkout these lists: r/Stoicism’s the Stoic Reading List | Ryan Holliday’s Lists 1 & 2| Goodreads
As always if you have a favorite part of Meditations or want to see any other stoic passage in future posts, please feel free to message me or comment anytime. Anyways, have a nice day/night where ever you happen to be… All the best, Chris.
MOTD #3: Find someone you respect, and use them to stay honest.
Seneca’s Letters are a must read for Stoics. Amazon Link
Want to read more books on Stoicism? checkout these lists: r/Stoicism’s the Stoic Reading List | Ryan Holliday’s Lists 1 & 2| Goodreads
As always if you have a favorite part of Meditations or want to see any other stoic passage in a future posts, please feel free to message me or comment anytime. Anyways, have a nice day/night where every you happen to be… All the best, Chris.
MOTD #7: "If you really want to escape the things that harass you,"
Seneca’s Letters are a must read for Stoics. Amazon Link
Want to read more books on Stoicism? checkout these lists: r/Stoicism’s the Stoic Reading List | Ryan Holliday’s Lists 1 & 2| Goodreads
As always if you have a favorite part of Meditations or want to see any other stoic passage in a future posts, please feel free to message me or comment anytime. Anyways, have a nice day/night where every you happen to be… All the best, Chris.
It's not entirely clear to me: By "stoicism," do you mean the philosophy of folks like Epictetus and Seneca (i.e., actual stoicism)? Or do you mean the more recent phenomenon of minimalism, exemplified in people like Marie Kondo? Or do you mean something else? I don't think I understand your youth pastor's concern, in part because I'm not sure what we're talking about here.
The stoicism of the ancients (i.e., actual stoicism) is great stuff. There's a reason why the early church leader Tertulian called him "our Seneca." Seneca's letters are a great read.
It's possible to get way too into the recent minimalism trend, but surely there's nothing wrong with being less attached to physical belongings and having fewer of them. Jesus talks about wealth and possessions a lot. It's typically not exactly in a positive way.
But like I said, I don't think I really understand the situation.
I found the Penguin Classic edition easy to read.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0140442103/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Is this Penguin classic the same one?
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140442103/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_glt_i_WZH4PFASJF0ZZ0MRJ92B
I think the best place to start is with his Letters. Here's a link (with referral Id removed): https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Penguin-Classics-Lucius-Annaeus/dp/0140442103/
I like the Lobe editions (because it includes the Latin), but that is a cheaper compendium with a better English translation :)
Hey man, I feel you. I’ve found Stoicism really helped me get a better handle on things and gain some useful perspective. Particularly when I was going through a rough time not that long ago.
I’d recommend...
This video as a starting point: https://youtu.be/5J6jAC6XxAI
And this book: Letters from a Stoic: Epistulae Morales Ad Lucilium https://www.amazon.sg/dp/0140442103/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabc_7XwQFbQXFBHKR?_encoding=UTF8&psc=1
Good luck on the path.
MOTD #88: “Now think of the things which goad man into destroying man: you’ll find that they are hope, envy, hatred, fear and contempt.”
(Previous) // (Next One)
Full letter:
>YES, I’ll give you some rules to observe that will enable you to live in greater safety. You for your part I suggest should listen as carefully to the advice I give you as you would if I were advising you on how to look after your health at Ardea.
>
>Now think of the things which goad man into destroying man: you’ll find that they are hope, envy, hatred, fear and contempt. Contempt is the least important of the lot, so much so that a number of men have actually taken shelter behind it for protection’s sake. For if a person feels contempt for someone, he tramples on him, doubtless, but he passes on. No one pursues an unremitting and persistent policy of injury to a man for whom he feels nothing but contempt. Even in battle the man on the ground is left alone, the fighting being with those still on their feet. Coming to hope, so long as you own nothing likely to arouse the greed or grasping instincts of others, so long as you possess nothing out of the ordinary (for people covet even the smallest things if they are rare or little known),* you’ll have nothing to worry about from the hopes of grasping characters. Envy you’ll escape if you haven’t obtruded yourself on other people’s notice, if you haven’t flaunted your possessions, if you’ve learnt to keep your satisfaction to yourself. Hatred either comes from giving offence, and that you’ll avoid by refraining from deliberately provoking anyone, or is quite uncalled for: here your safeguard will be ordinary tact. It is a kind of hatred that has been a source of danger to a lot of people; men have been hated without having any actual enemy. As regards not being feared, a moderate fortune and an easy-going nature will secure you that. People should see that you’re not a person it is dangerous to offend: and with you a reconciliation should be both easy and dependable. To be feared inside your own home, it may be added, is as much a source of trouble as being feared outside it – slave or free, there isn’t a man who hasn’t power enough to do you injury. Besides, to be feared is to fear: no one has been able to strike terror into others and at the same time enjoy peace of mind himself. There remains contempt. The person who has made contempt his ally, who has been despised because he has chosen to be despised, has the measure of it under his control. Its disadvantages are negatived by the possession of respected qualities and of friends having influence with some person with the necessary influence. Such influential friends are people with whom it is well worth having ties, without being so tied up with them that their protection costs you more than the original danger might have done.
>
>But nothing will help quite so much as just keeping quiet, talking with other people as little as possible, with yourself as much as possible. For conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insinuating and insidious something that elicits secrets from us just like love or liquor. Nobody will keep the things he hears to himself, and nobody will repeat just what he hears and no more. Neither will anyone who has failed to keep a story to himself keep the name of his informant to himself. Every person without exception has someone to whom he confides everything that is confided to himself. Even supposing he puts some guard on his garrulous tongue and is content with a single pair of ears, he will be the creator of a host of later listeners – such is the way in which what was but a little while before a secret becomes common rumour.
>
>Never to wrong others takes one a long way towards peace of mind. People who know no self-restraint lead stormy and disordered lives, passing their time in a state of fear commensurate with the injuries they do to others, never able to relax. After every act they tremble, paralysed, their consciences continually demanding an answer, not allowing them to get on with other things. To expect punishment is to suffer it; and to earn it is to expect it. Where there is a bad conscience, some circumstance or other may provide one with impunity, but never with freedom from anxiety; for a person takes the attitude that even if he isn’t found out, there’s always the possibility of it. His sleep is troubled. Whenever he talks about someone else’s misdeed he thinks of his own, which seems to him all too inadequately hidden, all too inadequately blotted out of people’s memories. A guilty person sometimes has the luck to escape detection, but never to feel sure of it.
>
>— Seneca's Letters from a Stoic. Letter CV, [trans. Campbell]
Get Letters from a Stoic, Campbell translation (Penguin Classics) here, Amazon Link
Want to read more books on Stoicism? check out these lists: r/Stoicism’s the Stoic Reading List | Ryan Holliday’s Lists 1 & 2| Goodreads
If you have a favorite part of Meditations or want to see any other stoic passage in future posts, please feel free to message me or comment anytime. Anyways, have a nice day/night where ever you happen to be… All the best, Chris.
Sure thing. There are several places where I can point you towards.
For one thing, The Daily Stoic is a great place to get started if you want to explore this ancient yet very practical philosophy.
Several key books would include Meditations by Marcus Aurelius. It's a one of a kind book that was never meant to be released. It's filled with the thoughts of one of the wisest and greatest Emperors of Rome. The version I've provided in the link (Modern Library) is the easiest to read in my opinion. Another two are Letters from a Stoic by Seneca, and Discourses and Selected Writings by Epictetus. Each are rich with wisdom and insight into the life of a stoic.
I've benefited greatly from each book, and I suspect I will carry the lessons they teach for the rest of my life. I hope I've helped you friend.
I have Letters from a Stoic (Penguin Classics) https://www.amazon.com/Letters-Penguin-Classics-Lucius-Annaeus/dp/0140442103
But there are only letters 90 and 91.
MOTD #7: "If you really want to escape the things that harass you,"
(Previous) // (Next One)
Seneca’s Letters are a must read for Stoics. Amazon Link
Want to read more books on Stoicism? checkout these lists: r/Stoicism’s the Stoic Reading List | Ryan Holliday’s Lists 1 & 2| Goodreads
As always if you have a favorite part of Meditations or want to see any other stoic passage in a future posts, please feel free to message me or comment anytime. Anyways, have a nice day/night where every you happen to be… All the best, Chris.
This guy is on point here. Get Seneca's <em>Letters from a Stoic</em>..
Classic stoicism is definitely a little...well, funny for us nowadays, but I really think they're conception of virtue ethics is rather on point^(1). As with most things, it is a product of its time, so a lot of its foundation is no longer there. They base there ethics in "living in accordance with nature", and this stems from their ideas on physics, which are absolutely wrong. Regardless, we have Friedrich Nietzsche to thank for showing us all that none of it will ever be right anyway, so choose the best path for you. You need to create your own values^2. Just think, and make it your own. Originality, for Nietzsche (I paraphrase), isn't coming up with something new, but seeing as new what is old. So take Seneca, and make Aurelius your own too if you like this Stoicism and virtue ethics business.
this is not quite correct but that's okay. Living a virtuous life was a necessary condition for eudaimonia, as I understand my cursory look at stoicism
I am probably butchering Nietzsche, I've only read a couple of his books, and only once. He's a complicated, and very misunderstood, thinker.
The two books you linked are different. Letters from a Stoic (you linked what looks to be an older, out of print edition of this one) was translated by Robin Campbell in 1969 and contains a selection of letters that he chose (not all 124).
The second book you linked says in the description at the top:
> This edition contains all 124 letters by Seneca and fragments quoted by Aulus Gellius.
Since there's no translator listed and it's printed by "CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform", I assume that this is a public domain translation, probably the translation by Richard Mott Gummere, which can be found free online.
"Letters from a Stoic" by Seneca
"Meditations" by Marcus Aurelius
Good stoicism starters.
Seneca's Letters From a Stoic.
"Letters from a Stoic" 978-0140442106
Stoicism is in my opinion the single most useful school of philosophy in the real world.
>For ~~those interested in Seneca~~ anybody ever, I can highly recommend this superb collection. Reading him played a major part in sparking my interest in philosophy.
FTFY
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