Epictetus

Excellent food for thought. Reader adequate. There are a few guidelines that are not applicable for today that are readily apparent .

1 person found this helpful

Check Yourself, Before You Wreck Yourself

This was a fascinating work of Stoic advice. While the author touches on several examples, much of the work boils down to the understanding that there are things you can control, and things you can't. Don't waste time worrying about the things you can't control, and instead focus on what you can, namely yourself, and be wise enough to recognize the difference. This may be an oversimplification, but you get the picture. I can only assume the translation is textually accurate, as such things are beyond my pay grade, but it is certainly easy to understand and follow. Overall, I enjoyed this text and was surprised more than once at it's applicability to the modern world.

Arthur Rowan does a fantastic job narrating. He has an excellent voice for these kinds of works, and speaks clearly with good inflection.

This is certainly one of the more enjoyable productions of classic texts I've listened to, partly because of the text itself, and partly because of the narration.


I received a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

1 person found this helpful

A Primer for inner peace

In Trump World this Book would be ignored and perhaps laughed at but its wisdom and lessons carry
relevance today.

In a short time this Audio Book will give you a different perspective on life not bad for 51 minutes.


The Narrator set the right mood for all listeners to enjoy the Book.




This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.

6 people found this helpful

A Great Practice to Live By....

It's something I find myself envious of... to accept the things I cannot change. God grant me the wisdom!
I very much enjoyed listening to this short but very thoughtful audiobook introducing me to Stoicism philosophy. I admit, I knew little on the subject and found it very interesting.

I appreciate the unique perspective, and appreciate the wisdom of knowing what you can, and cannot, change. Definitely worth the listen :)

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

2 people found this helpful

Read well. Translation selected well. Product improvement needed.

In my view it’s simply unsound practice to fail to include chapter numbers when a text is, itself, numbered. If you can do it for the Muller report, you can do it for Epictetus. Also. I also feel that anything you can read in the public domain ought be available with a simple audible subscription. It’s just greedy to take public works and privatize them. I shouldn’t have to spend a credit on this book. But that’s another matter. Add chapter/item markers. Thank you.

Though provoking

Since this text is very old, there's not really anything "new", however, when considered exactly how old the concepts are and how they still seem fresh is mind boggling. Narration is spot on.

“I was voluntarily provided this free review copy audiobook by the author, narrator, or publisher.”

Enchiridion

Godd advice from the stoics in a very short book.Arthur Rowan was a eonderful narrator.I was given this book by the narrator,author or publisher free for an honest review.

Enchiridion

This was the first time I really read any Stoic writings and I was pleasantly surprised. I didn't agree with everything proposed in the discourse, but there was enough in there that I agreed with to make me want to return to it with an intent to study it better. I am glad I was given an opportunity to try this out.

This book was given to me for free at my request for my voluntary and unbiased review.

Lots of wisdom in a little book

This is pretty deep stuff, so I found I needed to slow the narration speed down to 1.0x. It was fascinating to hear the concept of "pick your battles," being spoken about almost 2000 years ago. And here I thought it was a modern concept!

The one thing I wish Audible would do is subdivide this into chapters. Each chapter discusses a complex thought, and I'd like to listen to them one at a time, perhaps once a day or something. The continuous format makes me feel obliged to listen to the whole thing at once, and it is too rich for that. Much like a decadent cheesecake, this would be easier to digest if consumed in small doses.

I've never been much of a fan of philosophy, but this book is helping me change my mind about that. I will definitely be listening again!

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Peace of mind from the 2nd century

tl;dr: seeking peace of mind? Listen to this. Not once, and not quickly. Really listen.

"It's not even an hour long, how great can it be? I'm glad I got it for free, who would pay for this?" Thought naive me.

Wikipedia calls Enchiridion "a short manual of Stoic ethical advice" which is more than an understatement. This is a distillation of how to be at peace through Stoicism, a Greco-Roman philosophy which is superficially identical to Buddhism.

Enchiridion lays out a set of simple principles and examples which would take a decade of dedication to master, if not a lifetime. Every few sentences could be their own chapter or their own book or their own set of books. In fact, you could pick any one of these over 50 chapters and find a self-help book on the shelves right now dedicated to that single chapter's idea. And that 300-page self-help book would swear they found the one secret to inner peace.

Not a single moment is difficult to understand; only difficult to live out. The arcane language has been stripped away and I imagine that this plain language is how it was intended to be heard long ago. The slow, deliberate narration is exactly what this kind of text deserves.

This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.