Reading list
The best Stoic books, from the Stoics themselves
Modern Stoicism books are mostly commentary on about five ancient ones. Those five are short, cheap to read in the original (free, here) and better than the commentary, because they were written by people using the ideas to get through exile, slavery, plague and the job of running an empire.
10 books, all free to read
Start with the Enchiridion if you have an hour, or with Meditations if you have a week of evenings. The order below is the order we would read them in, not a ranking of how wise each author was.
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1. Short Works with the Enchiridion
by Epictetus
The handbook: a former slave's whole philosophy in about an hour, starting with the line that some things are up to us and some are not.
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2. Meditations
by Marcus Aurelius
An emperor's private notebook, never meant to be read, which is why it is so honest. Read a page a night and it starts reading you.
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3. Moral Letters to Lucilius
by Seneca
A hundred and twenty-four letters to a friend about time, fear, money and death. The warmest of the Stoics, and the best writer.
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4. Dialogues with On the Shortness of Life
by Seneca
Seneca's essays, including the one people quote most: life is long enough, if you know how to use it.
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5. Discourses
by Epictetus
The longer lessons behind the handbook, taken down by a student. Blunter and funnier than you expect.
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6. The Consolation of Philosophy
by Boethius
Written in a prison cell before an execution, with Philosophy herself as the visitor. The Stoic idea tested at the hardest moment.
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7. Tusculan Disputations
by Cicero
Cicero on death, pain and grief, setting the Stoics against the other schools. The Roman way into the argument.
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8. Essays
by Michel de Montaigne
Montaigne read the Stoics all his life and argued with them in essays like the one on learning to die. The Renaissance answer.
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9. Lives of the Noble Grecians and Romans with the life of Cato the Younger
by Plutarch
Plutarch's lives include Cato, the Stoic who would not bend, and the men who admired and feared him.
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10. As a Man Thinketh
by James Allen
A short Victorian classic on the idea that what you think shapes what happens to you. Stoicism with the Greek taken out.
Read it as a path: The Stoics
Four ancient voices on staying steady when life is not, starting with the one-hour handbook.
More lists
Read them free
Every book on this list is free in Doomreader: open one and it reads as short posts you scroll, with your place kept and its best pages a tap away. You can listen to any of them free too, read aloud by your device.