Letters from a Stoic by Seneca

This is the book that introduced me to Stoicism and it has changed the way I looked at many things in life. I happen to appreciate my family time more, not to worry as much for the things I have no control over, ... 

My recommendation: 10/10

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This is the book that introduced me to Stoicism and it has changed the way I looked at many things in life. I happen to appreciate my family time more, not to worry as much for the things I have no control over, ... It is incredible how relatable the content of this ancient philosophy is in our day. A must-read.    

Notes:

The standard which I accept is this: one’s life should be a compromise between the ideal and the popular morality. People should admire our way of life but they should at the same time find it understandable.

Anyone entering our homes should admire us rather than our furnishing.

Do you ask what is the proper limit to a person’s wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, what is enough.

There is no enjoying the possession of anything valuable unless one has someone to share it with.

Associate with people who are likely to improve you.

Only the wise man is content with what is his. All foolishness suffers the burden of dissatisfaction with itself.

We should cherish old age and enjoy it. It is full of pleasure if you know how to use it. Fruit tastes most delicious just when its season is ending.

If you shape your life according to nature, you will never be poor: if according to people’s opinions, you will never be rich. Nature’s wants are small, while those of opinion are limitless.

People who are forever acting as interpreters and never as creators, always lurking in someone else's shadow. They never venture to do for themselves the things they have spent such a long time learning.

I’m telling you to be a slow speaking person.

The man, though, whom you should admire and imitate is the one who finds it a joy to live and in spite of that is not reluctant to die.

I should prefer to see you abandoning grief than it abandoning you. Much as you may wish to, you will not be able to keep it up for very long, so give it up as early as possible.

Whatever can happen at any time can happen today. Let us reflect then, my dearest Lucilius, that we ourselves shall not be long in reaching the place we mourn his having reached.

Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are. We've been using them not because we needed them but because we had them. Look at being a number of things we buy because others have bought them or because they're in most people's houses.

There's only one way to be happy and that's to make the most of life. Eating, drinking, spending the money that’s been left to you, that's what I call living - and that's what I call not forgetting that you've got to die someday, too.

'No man's good by accident. Virtue has to be learnt. Pleasure is a poor and petty thing. No value should be set on it: it's something we share with dumb animals - the minutest, most insignificant creatures cutter after it.