Stoicism is perhaps the only “philosophy” where the original, primary texts are actually cleaner and easier to read than anything academics have written afterward. Which is awesome because it means you can dive into the subject and go straight to the source. I firmly believe everyone is capable of reading these very accessible writers. Below are my recommendations both on specific translations and then some additional texts worth looking at. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Modern Library). There is one translation of Marcus Aurelius to read and that is Gregory Hayes’s amazing edition for the
Stoicism is perhaps the only “philosophy” where the original, primary texts are actually cleaner and easier to read than anything academics have written afterward. Which is awesome because it means you can dive into the subject and go straight to the source. I firmly believe everyone is capable of reading these very accessible writers. Below are my recommendations both on specific translations and then some additional texts worth looking at. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius (Modern Library). There is one translation of Marcus Aurelius to read and that is Gregory Hayes’s amazing edition for the Modern Library. Everything else falls sadly short. His version is completely devoid of any “thou’s” “arts” “shalls.” It’s beautiful and haunting. I’ve recommended this book to literally thousands of people at this point. Buy it. Change your life. Letters of a Stoic by Seneca (see also: On the Shortness of Life). Both these translations by Penguin are fantastic. Seneca or Marcus are the best places to start if you’re looking to explore Stoicism. Seneca seems like he would have been a fun guy to know—which is unusual for a Stoic. I suggest starting with On the Shortness of Life (a collection of short essays) and then move to his book of letters (which are really more like essays than true correspondence). Discourses by Epictetus (Penguin). Personally, I prefer the Penguin translations, but I’ve tried a handful of others and found the differences to be relatively negligible. Of the big th...
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