Stoicism: A Detailed History of Ancient Wisdom That Will Help You Cure Anxiety

by Abel Gray

Stoicism is a school of philosophy that arose during the Hellenist era. It was created by a philosopher named Zeno of Citium in the year 300 BC in the ancient city of Athens. These ideas were quickly adopted by the Cynics as well as by Socrates. It caused controversial arguments among the Academics, Epicureans, and Skeptics. The word “Stoicism” comes from the Greek words Stoa Poikile (the Painted Porch), a large marketplace in the country. It was there that Stoics from different parts of the country met and conducted philosophical teachings. Soon after its creation, Stoicism spread to Rome where it blossomed. Discover The First Two Topoi History of Stoicism Chrysippus' Stoicism The Stoic Practices of Marcus Aurelius Epictetus' Stoicism Seneca Modern Stoicism The Importance of Stoicism Stoic Principles Principles for Developing an Unbendable Mind If you are ready to learn and improve your mindset, this book will provide you with philosophy, history and self-help. You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.” – Marcus Aurelius, Meditations. “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.” – Epictetus. “Let philosophy scrape off your own faults, rather than be a way to rail against the faults of others” – Seneca. “Often injustice lies in what you aren’t doing, not only in what you are doing.”- Marcus Aurelius. “Don’t seek for everything to happen as you wish it would, but rather wish that everything happens as it actually will – then your life will flow well.” – Epictetus.

205 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 7, 2018

Reviews

[Sina Jafarzadeh · Rating 1 out of 5]

Badly written. Needs an editor. Long and complex sentences. Cryptic.

[Stephanie H. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Stoicism by Abel Gray is not a light read but it is fascinating. Gray covers everything from the history and evolution of stoicism to its popularity among modern leaders and how we can use it to improve our everyday lives. The philosophical terminology and Ancient Greek names in the history sections make the book hard to read at times, but it’s worth it to gain a better understanding of this concept.

While the work is billed as a “self-help” book, the “self-help” part only seems to begin around chapter eleven, maybe as early as chapter ten. On the one hand, this may be to the book’s benefit since self-help books are a dime a dozen and this one needs to stand out somehow. On the other hand, that also makes it tempting to skip to chapter eleven (especially considering the author’s invitation to do so in the introduction) and makes the reader wonder why these aren’t two separate books. In fact, I felt as though I were reading two separate books, one about the history and evolution of stoicism and one about ways in which we can use stoicism to be happy in the modern world. I think this book would be more palatable, especially for those not so much into the history or philosophical terminology, if it were restructured to weave the self-help and the facts of Stoicism together. While this is already done some, I think that using this approach through the entire book will make it much easier to understand and more compelling.

Given the denseness of this subject, Gray’s writing is smooth and easy to follow. He doesn’t shy away from philosophical terms and it took me a couple times re-reading certain passages to understand the principles of stoicism, but it still wasn’t as difficult as most philosophy books I’ve read. It’s professionally edited for the most part; I only found a couple of proofreading errors, which didn’t care many problems, Still, I fear that Gray might lose readers partway through Stoicism if he keeps the current structure. After all, people looking for a self-help book usually don’t want all the facts upfront, and it’s a waste for readers to skip over all this wonderful information just to get to what they can use in their lives.

[Claudia Blanton · Rating 5 out of 5]

After hearing just about everyone speaks or writes about how much Stoicism has influenced their lives, I knew I had to start reading up on it as well, to see what all of the fuss is about.
Now that I have finished reading this book, I can see the benefits of the philosophy – to an extent, but I am glad I chose this book to assist me in finding out more, so at least I could make the decision if this type of thinking was my cup of tea.
Well written, detailed, and informative, I loved learning about this interesting worldview that spans apparently through a lot more aspects of life, than I originally thought. I am prone to overthink everything, worry and anxiety have been a part of my life since I can remember (I suffer from PTSD, due to child abuse), so anything that could ease some of that is greatly appreciated.
I had no idea that there were different types of Stoicism, some of which are covered in great detail in this book On top of that – even though I am not Christian – it was nice to read the section Christianity and Stoicism, as it made it more relatable to a concept and philosophy, I am a lot more familiar with.

I am not planning on following the entire set of principles of this philosophy, and adapt it into my life with abandon, but this book brought up some really good points, that are applicable, and practical in nature. I really enjoyed reading this book, and feel like that at least now, I can contribute something to the conversation when the topic comes up again. And with that, it accomplished the mission that I have set out to conquer.

[Valerii Soloviov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very philosophical oriented

I was hope to learn about stoicism and contemporary changes but I found that there was no room for contemporary stoicism. I found it boring sometimes. I had a goal to read it completely - only because of this I haven't drop the book at first page.

[gerry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Refresher

Sometimes it is easy to forget, while the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, what you carry is very important