How To Be A Stoic cover art

How To Be A Stoic

Ancient Wisdom for Modern Living

 Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

How To Be A Stoic

By: Massimo Pigliucci
Narrated by: Peter Coleman
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $21.99

Buy Now for $21.99

About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

'In this thought-provoking book, Massimo Pigliucci shares his journey of discovering the power of Stoic practices in a philosophical dialogue with one of Stoicism's greatest teachers.' RYAN HOLIDAY, BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF THE OBSTACLE IS THE WAY AND THE DAILY STOIC

Who am I?

What am I doing?

How ought I to live my life?

Stoicism teaches us to acknowledge our emotions, reflect on what causes them and redirect them for our own good. Whenever we worry about how to be happy, we are worrying about how to lead a good life. No goal seems more elusive.

Massimo Pigliucci explores this remarkable philosophy and how its wisdom can be applied to our everyday lives in the quest for meaning. He shows how stoicism teaches us the importance of a person's character, integrity and compassion.

Whoever we are, we can take something away from stoicism and, in How to be a Stoic, with its practical tips and exercises, meditations and mindfulness, he also explains how relevant it is to every part of our modern lives.

© Massimo Pigliucci 2017 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

 Alternative & Complementary Medicine Consciousness & Thought Meditation Personal Development Personal Success Philosophy Society Spirituality Stoicism Mindfulness

Critic Reviews

Pigliucci makes a good case for Stoicism and living stoically
A good case for the enduring relevance of 2,000-year-old precepts
In this thought-provoking book, Massimo Pigliucci shares his journey of discovering the power of Stoic practices in a philosophical dialogue with one of Stoicism's greatest teachers.
Excellent (Oliver Burkeman)
As its title suggests, How to Be a Stoic is a how-to book, but one of a very high order. Yes, Massimo Pigliucci gives his readers advice on how to live a happy and meaningful life. He is careful, though, to put a secure foundation under that advice by explaining who the ancient Stoics were and how they arrived at the conclusions they did. Do you want to avoid wasting the one life you have to live? Read this book!
How to Be a Stoic proves many things: that the ancient school of Stoicism is superbly relevant to our times; that profound wisdom can be delivered in lively, breezy prose; and that Massimo Pigliucci is uniquely gifted at translating philosophy into terms helpful for alleviating and elevating the lives of many
This is a lucid, engaging, and persuasive book about what it means to pursue Stoic ideals in the here and now. Massimo Pigliucci's imaginary conversations with Epictetus carry the reader effortlessly along while grounding the discussion firmly in the ancient Stoic tradition-and in his own life experience. The result is a compelling picture of a Stoic way of life that is consistent with contemporary science and philosophy, and is both eminently ethical and down-to-earth practical. It will be inviting to Stoics and non-Stoics alike who are willing to reason together seriously about how (and why) to be a modern Stoic.
If you want to learn the ways of Stoicism, and you're living in the 21st century, this should be one of the first books you read. Massimo has written a fine primer for the aspiring Marcus Aurelius.
All stars
Most relevant
With narcissist personality traits flourishing through the use of social media I found this book highlights many antidotes that enable us to live a more meaningful life.

Highlights many useful principles to live by.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Overall a fantastic thorough rabbit hole of stoicism, I do wish Massimo spoke the whole book though, the speaker seemed very robotic

Great! I wish Massimo spoke for the whole book

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Just not my bag, and the narrator sounded like a robot. Tough to listen to.

It's not that simple...

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It involves fake conversations and I couldn’t get past that! On to the next one.

Not what I expected

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
There's nothing groundbreaking here. Anyone who has spent a small time with basic Buddhism will find this kinda familiar and obvious.

Kinda obvious....

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.