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byrenical's review against another edition
3.0
"Remind thyself that he whom thou lovest is mortal - that what thou lovest is not thine own; it is given thee for the present, not irrevocably nor for ever, but even as a fig or a bunch of grapes at the appointed season of the year."
There are some straight bangers in here, although tautological often, and too many calls to God for my liking. If you want to check out stoic philosophy I would just go straight for Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. He does naught but spit straight fire. Although the benefit of this is that you can download free and it's pretty short. Plus he likes to throw some shade philosophically:
"He that hath no musical instruction is a child in Music; he that hath no letters is a child in Learning; he that is untaught is a child in Life."
Although that made me laugh, he then goes on to tell me not to laugh as often. "Laughter should not be much, nor frequent, nor unrestrained." So points deducted for being a killjoy. One more quote that seems appropriate:
"Or what reason hast thou (tell me) for desiring to read? For if thou aim at nothing beyond the mere delight of it, or gaining some scrap of knowledge, thou art but a poor, spiritless knave. But if thou desirest to study to its proper end, what else is this than a life that flows on tranquil and serene? And if thy reading secures thee not serenity, what profits it?"
benrogerswpg's review against another edition
4.0
Very insightful. I liked this one a lot.
Epictetus is one of my favorite philosophers!
4/5
Epictetus is one of my favorite philosophers!
4/5
grimamethyst's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
3.0
rachelunabridged's review
informative
reflective
slow-paced
3.0
an interesting read for sure! similarly to when i was reading marcus aurelius, i was really into the historical aspect of this read. fascinating to get a glimpse of what times were like in ancient greece. i found that i enjoyed this collection less than marcus aurelius's meditations, however. there was a much stronger religious focus in this read that had me skimming after a while.
some passages that really caught my eye were
"nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak."
"if you seek truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found truth, you need not fear being defeated."
some passages that really caught my eye were
"nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak."
"if you seek truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found truth, you need not fear being defeated."
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