How to Live Like a Stoic

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What to expect

Bloomsbury presents How to Live Like a Stoic: A Handbook for Happiness by Tom Hodgkinson, read by Tom Hodgkinson and Murray Lachlan Young.

'The inestimable Tom Hodgkinson once again contributes to our collective calm with this perfectly judged collection of philosophy.' Emma Thompson

'A great guide to philosophy and big ideas... it made me laugh out loud. It’s such a cheerful book, I read it in one go (well... two) and emerged refreshed and nourished.' Dominic West

'He knows that play is one of the best teachers, and this treatise on Stoicism is illuminating, engaging, informative and highly accessible' Irvine Welsh

There’s more to Stoicism than shrugging your shoulders and getting on with it, as Tom Hodgkinson discovers in this witty and enlightening book.

Stoicism is an enduring and ancient philosophy that can help you with everything from love and politics to money and spirituality. The Stoics were celebrated by the Romans, they influenced Christianity and even Shakespeare admired them. Today, both therapists and politicians will profess adherence to the Stoic creed. The “serenity prayer” is a Stoic statement. The Beatles’ “Let it Be” is a Stoic song.

Tom Hodgkinson, author of bestselling How to Be Idle, goes back to the original philosophical texts and looks at the greatest Stoics in history – including Seneca, Cicero, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius and St Augustine – to see if they can help us find fulfilment. He discovers that Stoicism is much stranger and more radical than you’d think.

With witty reflections on everything from ethics, grammar, rhetoric, education, friendship and the importance of occasionally letting your hair down, Tom Hodgkinson shares his genuinely funny and brilliant guide to the Stoic life.

Critics Review

The inestimable Tom Hodgkinson once again contributes to our collective calm with this perfectly judged collection of philosophy. In these days when I don’t even know where my hat is, let alone where to hang it, I cling strenuously to the possibility of living more like a Stoic. They didn’t care about hats.
Emma Thompson
A great guide to philosophy and big ideas... it made me laugh out loud. It’s such a cheerful book, I read it in one go (well... two) and emerged refreshed and nourished.
Dominic West
The most fun I’ve ever had with a band of philosophers. Hodgkinson helps us to understand why classical Stoicism is back in fashion and how it can make life that bit easier. I feel cooler just for reading it.
Daisy Dunn
Remember the three Stoic rules. 1. Stop trying to control the things you can’t control. 2. Start controlling the things you can control. 3. Read the masterly Tom Hodgkinson to understand real Stoicism.
Harry Mount
Unpretentious, witty, sensible and challenging, this is no mere 'self-help' book. It is an important bit of cultural critique, a treasury of traditional resources for pushing back against the slavery of status and consumption that seems to be making the world and its leaders so impressively stupid at the moment.
Rowan Williams
Where some writers push philosophical concepts around with the enthusiasm of slaves dragging great stones to construct the pyramids, Tom Hodgkinson invariably has fun with them. He knows that play is one of the best teachers, and this treatise on Stoicism is illuminating, engaging, informative and highly accessible... I loved it!
Irvine Welsh
Tom argues powerfully and entertainingly why the Stoics mattered so much – and concludes that we don’t really have to be like them to be happy. Perfect!
John Humphrys
Liberating. A book of real wit, in both senses of humour and insight. Stoicism usually comes across as a dry, earnest doctrine, but here the philosophy is at once unsparingly practical and enticingly expansive. And also a path to question.
Mark Vernon

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