Anybody into Stoicism?

This guy.

• Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca are available on gutenberg / archive.org and in print.
• A Guide to The Good Life {The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy}
• The Daily Stoic

(Not much survives of the Ancient Greek Stoics, but you could read up on Zeno of Citium and perhaps The Cynics).

You don't need more than that. You don't need to read blogs. You don't need to watch videos. In fact to do so misses part of the point. Keep the signal to noise ratio in your favor. To quote Seneca...

 

I dabbled in stoicism quite a bit but ultimately I moved on from it. Extract some great wisdom from it as much as u can though just don't follow it word for word imo.

 

On my desk I've got As A Man Thinketh Keepsake Edition (contains Eight Pillars of Prosperity too) right next to The Daily Stoic and A Guide To The Good life. Without doubt one of the best things I've ever read.

Meditations is a personal diary. No 'plot'; just notes he wrote to himself. The Preface/Introduction usually put it in historical context. How hard it is to read depends on the translation.

What survives of Epictetus's is actually the notes one of his students took. Handbook (Encheiridion) is a good place to start. But be sure to read Discourses too. Seneca, on the other hand, can be wordy. But his writings have some wisdom in them... and you could easily read one letter a day (Letters from a Stoic).

For a modern take and explanation A Guide To The Good Life is probably your best bet. Great book. How To Be A Stoic was a decent primer and read too. Haven't read A New Stoicism yet so no comment.

I hardly ever use youtube for anything. There's probably some decent videos, but you'll just be getting an interpretation of something you could get for free off Project Gutenberg/Archive.org and read over a weekend. In my humble opinion it's best to keep the signal to noise ratio in your favor.

 

You're right, Meditations is a hard read - but I (personally) cannot stress enough how rewarding a read it is. I wouldn't recommend reading it cover to cover in a single session. I'd suggest to maybe 2-3 pages a day. Reflect on what you've read and how you can apply it to your daily life if you want to get the most out of the book.

 

"Letters of a Stoic" by Seneca is unstructured but pretty good, but it's a random collection of letters to his friends about Stoic topics/life advice. It's like a blog from 2000 years ago.

 

I was about to suggest that. It's very easy to read, but rewarding.

 

The stoic body is pretty good

 

For a modern reframing of Stoicism that may provide some clarity and mop up anything that passed you by I can recommend The New Stoicism by Lawrence C. Becker and books by/interviews with Ryan Holiday.

 

I recomend this book :


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