The Best Books for New Stoics & The Stoa-Curious

Find your jumping off point.

If you suspect Stoicism has something to offer you, where do you begin?

Most Stoics suggest one of the “Big Three,” Stoic authors of antiquity: Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca

• Marcus Aurelius wrote Meditations, his personal journal. 

• Epictetus is responsible for the Enchiridion and the Discourses, which consist of summaries and transcripts from his lectures collected by his student Arian. 

• Seneca wrote a large body of work: philosophical letters, several long essays and books, and some philosophically adjacent works like plays and scientific explorations. 

But none of these works were intended to be self-contained overviews of Stoic philosophy. They’re not designed to teach beginners. They’re the surviving fragments of a lost cannon, and newcomers often find them confusing because they have little context for what the “big three” were trying to do.

You might start with any of these authors and find something of value, or you might bounce off all of them.

There is no one perfect place to start, but I’d like to suggest some jumping-off points that strike me as powerful and likely to build on each other.

Step One: Realize You’re Wasting Your Life

“On The Shortness of Life,” is ostensibly Seneca’s attempt to convince his father-in-law to abandon the time-consuming burden of running Rome’s grain dole and retire into private life.

But his target audience was wider: all of humanity. For almost two millennia this essay has forced countless readers to reconsider their lives after realizing they’re overly focused on “bullshit.”

Seneca has an agenda. He wants you to conclude that you’ve been on the wrong path and turn to Stoicism, or at least become a philosopher with an active practice. But even if philosophy isn’t for you, Seneca’s rhetorical flair will leave you wondering what the hell you’re doing. 

I suspect this essay hits harder for those who are over the age of 30. It’ll take most people one to two hours to read.

Step Two: Understand What Stoicism Is Built On:

Stoics make the bold claim that virtue is the only good — they built their entire philosophical system around it. Yet none of the big three convincingly flesh out this radical claim. They didn’t have to.

The ancient Stoics built atop an existing philosophical edifice established by Socrates. They took it for granted that their students knew Socrates’s claims, as passed on by Plato, Xenophon, and other now-lost authors. But most modern people haven’t read any Socratic dialogues, so the Stoic arguments might seem weaker than they should. 

Gorgias might remedy that problem for you. 

It’s the dialogue that made me fully sign on to the idea that virtue really was the only good. It features Socrates tangling with Callicles, an immoral but talented sophist who believes the strong should rule over the weak. Unlike some of Plato’s dialogues, where Socrates’s opponents come off as pushovers, Callicles forcefully argues back, and things get heated. 

I also enjoyed the full cast audio reading of this dialogue starring William Sigalis as Socrates. 

Step Three: Get Some Stoic Flavor:

At this point, while you still don’t have the necessary context to understand everything, your understanding of virtue is much improved and you’re probably itching to explore the big three Stoic authors outlined above.

Dip into what appeals to you. Different pieces of the cannon appeal to different people at different points in their lives. I read Meditations around age 16 and hated it. But within a few years it became one of my favorite books of all time.

• You can read Meditations and appreciate many of Marcus’s points and the beauty of his prose without grasping the underlying principles driving his philosophy. 

• Epictetus has a no-nonsense “gruff teacher who’s going to school you in what’s important,” vibe. 

• Seneca’s writing is compelling and persuasive and often seems less dogmatic, but he can meander a bit. 

One of these authors may work for you, or you may bounce off all of them. Anyone who tells you there’s one best starting point is lying.

But if you’re still not “getting” Stoicism, don’t despair. You can always swing back to the big three when you have more context for what they’re saying. 

Step Four: Finding The Good Life

Seneca presented the problem in step one, and we can rely on a French philosopher Pierre Hadot to flesh out the solution — developing/adopting a philosophy of life. 

Two of his books, Philosophy as a Way of Life, and The Inner Citadel, do this. Both are excellent. They’re not page-turners, but are full of wisdom and perspective that will make any philosophy you go on to read much more digestible and meaningful. This will explain what the ancient Stoics were up to. It’ll also tell you a lot about the impractical, theoretical philosophy that abounds in modern academia.

It was only after reading these books three or four years after discovering Stoicism that I finally understood the big picture. 

Step Five: Exploring Stoic Ideas

The “big three” Stoic authors came at the same issues from different angles. They had their own nuanced perspectives, which is great, since we see how Stoicism can be tolerant to a range of opinions. But if you want to know what ancient Stoics thought about X, you’re out of luck, since X is scattered across dozens of letters, essays, and books. 

Enter Ward Farnsworth. His The Practicing Stoic is one of my favorite modern books about Stoicism.

It’s essentially a Stoic commonplace book, divided up by topic. Pick the topic you’re interested in and hear what the “big three,” — and a number of aligned voices — thought about it.

Step Six: When All Else Fails, Go Modern 

You can skip to here at any point if you’re daunted by the primary texts or want something succinct.

Most modern Stoicism-inspired books involve a degree of modern framing and interpretation, which is fine. Many strip out elements that the ancients considered essential. But many newcomers find these books more digestible than the ancient texts, and perhaps more coherent, since they’re trying to teach systematically.

Here are three excellent modern books to consider:

• Breakfast With Seneca by

  David Fideler
  .

  • At a low point in his life, Fideler turned to Seneca and read one of his letters each morning at breakfast. In a series of beautiful essays, he brings the ancient Roman thinker to life and explains how to apply his ideas in the modern world.

• How To Think Like A Roman Emperor by

  Donald J. Robertson

  • Robertson’s book on Marcus Aurelius explores how the long-dead emperor applied Stoic therepea to himself while navigating his turbulent life, and how we can do the same in ours.

• A Handbook for New Stoics by

  Massimo Pigliucci
  and Gregory Lopez.

  • 52 simple lessons in Stoicism that you can binge or string out over a year. Pigliucci does a great job explaining how Stoic philosophy is actually applied to real-world situations to improve resiliency and find peace of mind. Each lesson has a journaling/homework component to help you apply it.