A Guide to the Good Life

The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy

Ranked #3 in Survey, Ranked #3 in Devotionsee more rankings.

One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life. In A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives.
In A Guide to the Good Life, Irvine offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancient philosophy can still direct us toward a better life. Using the psychological...
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Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of A Guide to the Good Life from the world's leading experts.

Marc Andreessen Co-Founder/Andreessen HorowitzBest (?) walk through the ancient/current philosophy of Stoicism. You can't control other people but you can control yourself, so do that. (Source)

Timothy Ferriss Author & EntrepreneurRecommends this book

Jason Fried Co-Founder/BasecampThe book that had the biggest impact on me this year was “A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy”. (Source)

Phil Libin CEO/EvernoteA very interesting read. (Source)

Tobi Lütke Founder & CEO/ShopifyOne of the best books I’ve ever read. (Source)

David Heinemeier Hansson An easy way to learn about [Stoicism] and recognize why this resonates. (Source)

Emrys Westacott Irvine counters the common perception of Stoicism as advocating a rather tedious, self-denying, joyless existence. He shows it’s really not like that. (Source)

Derek Sivers Almost too personal for me to give an objective review, because I found when reading it that the quirky philosophy I've been living my life by since 17 matches up exactly with a 2000-year-old philosophy called Stoicism. Mine was self-developed haphazardly, so it was fascinating to read the refined developed original. Really resonated. (Source)

Massimo Pigliucci It’s a sort of philosophical judo, what Bill practises. As a result, he’s been a much happier person. (Source)

Mike Benkovich Honourable Mentions: Four Hour Work Week, The Happiness Hypothesis, Meditations, Catch 22, A Guide To The Good Life. (Source)

Scott Perry The historic Stoic and Buddhist texts are very accessible, but William Irvine’s A Guide to the Good Life is a gentle introduction to Stoicism’s relevance to modern life and touches on its similarities to Buddhism. (Source)


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