Building a Life of Value: Timeless Wisdom to Inspire and Empower Us

by Jason A. Merchey

How Do Your Build a Meaningful Life? More than just a book of quotations, this book is a fusion of great thinking from classical to contemporary, from philosophical to poetic. It is a concert of voices, harmoniously blended by Jason Merchey and his thought-provoking essays. It will stimulate your thinking, energize your spirit, and deepen your understanding of human nature. It presents progressive ideals at their best - humane, humanistic, and high-minded. Consider it your shaman, your oracle, your foundation, your blueprint for truly building a life of value. With these ideas we can improve ourselves, our planet, and our future.

320 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 2005

About the author

Jason Merchey is a philosophical thinker and independent scholar as well as founder of Values of the Wise. Growing up Jewish in a suburb of Los Angeles, he grappled with sociocultural, familial, religious, and psychological issues that led to much of the insight he has today. After junior college, he earned a bachelor’s degree summa cum laude in psychology and social behavior from the University of California Irvine, and was inducted into Phi Beta Kappa for excellence in liberal scholarship. Jason went on to earn a master’s degree in clinical psychology from California State University Fullerton. Having moved to San Diego, he obtained thousands hours of experience counseling clients of all types. It was in that capacity that Jason became intrigued by and began to study wisdom, values, and ethics. The Values of the Wise™ website (www.ValuesoftheWise.com) and book series were born as ways to lead not only himself but also his clients to find the insight, consolation, and wisdom from great quotations representing our intellectual heritage.

Jason is now primarily an investor of real estate, equities and the like. He publishes books in the area of wisdom, ethics, personal growth, philosophy, and psychology because he feels it can be helpful to people and to society, not because he is any good at making money from it!

Say hi at www.ValuesoftheWise.com where you will find many free tools to help you live a life of value.

Reviews

[Crystal · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was out of my comfort and not what I expected. I did manage to read through it but I found hard to read.
This book has wisdom we all can use.
I do suggest if you want to read the book fine but don't buy it unless you check the Look Inside option on Amazon to get an idea what the book is about.
I do recommend the book.

[Kerry Pickens · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had just attended a philosophy discussion group, so the subject matter of this book was very familiar to me I had trouble following along with the text, and found the quotations and changes of font from bold to italics all the time very distracting. Since it is a transcript of a radio show, I somehow felt like I was eavesdropping on a conversation. I also found that the participants defined terms but they never explored the relevance of the terms to their everyday lives. I am used to Jewish sermons being prepared in this style, but there is usually some progression from the discussion of the terminology to examples how that term brought relevance to the speaker's life. I didn't find the text all that timeless . . .btw I received a copy of this so called book through an email, and then I received a whiny email from the author accusing me of not rating his cutting and pasting higher. The authors that get high actually put a lot of effort into writing books and sending free copies of the books for review.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a book of essays linking well-placed quotations from across the ages. To me, it reads very much as a primer on critical thinking. The quotes drive the logic of ethical thinking in such a thorough-going fashion. In such a way that it reads very much as what it is... pacing through the wisdom of the ages.

My experience of this book is not a straight quick read-through. It's an invitation to consideration, to pause and think as I read. And there are more volumes than one of these which I am definitely purchasing. Many thanks to the author for this well-timed piece!

[Ruth Westreich · Rating 5 out of 5]

Building a Life of Value brings home in today's fast-paced, all or nothing world, that values, ethics and wisdom will always be the cornerstone of living a life of value.

Merchey's attention to the common and uncommon in our society, shows us that all of us have wisdom land values embedded in us.

This is one of those books that you put on the shelf and refer to time and time again.

Ruth Westreich