Philosophy

Self-Help

The Modern Stoic Handbook

Ancient Practice for People Who Have to Function in the Modern WorldBy Lucian Webb

Listen with Sir Michael Caine™ and 1,000+ voices

Try for $0.00 Get for $11.50

Length7h 56m

About this audiobook

The Modern Stoic Handbook is practical Stoicism for everyday life: a working guide to Stoic philosophy, the dichotomy of control, and daily Stoic practice for people with spreadsheets, group chats, difficult coworkers, and 4 a.m. dread. A man Lucian Webb used to coach kept a Marcus Aurelius quote pinned to his desktop and read it every morning. He also screamed at his assistant twice a week and could not sit in a room with his sister for forty minutes. "When I asked him what the quote meant in practice," Webb writes, "he gave me a paragraph of vocabulary and no behavior." That gap between what we know and what we do is the gap this book on Stoic philosophy was built to close. Written by a classicist who taught Marcus Aurelius, Epictetus, and Seneca in the original Greek and Latin for twenty-three years before becoming an executive coach, this modern Stoicism handbook strips the philosophy of its gym-shirt costume and returns it to working order. Across twenty short chapters, Webb covers the one dichotomy of control, the daily examination, the view from above, the premeditation of adversity, anger as the most expensive emotion, fear, death, money and status, difficult people, aging, comparison in the algorithmic age, and grief. Every chapter ends with a single "Try this" exercise you can run this week. This is Stoic philosophy for everyday life, not a quote book you could buy for nine dollars at an airport. Inside this practical Stoicism handbook: • The one dichotomy of control — the single distinction the whole philosophy hangs from, with the pen-and-paper exercise Webb uses with coaching clients to sort what is up to you from what is not • The daily Stoic practice that influencers skip — the morning preparation and the evening examination, the unglamorous private work that does not photograph well but actually changes behavior • Anger, the most expensive emotion — why Seneca treated anger as a temporary madness, and how to interrupt it before it sends the email you will regret • Stoicism for difficult people and difficult relationships — handling the passive-aggressive 8:47 a.m. email, the teenager who will not look up, the spouse whose moods are not yours to operate • Death, grief, and aging without bitterness — the topics modern culture skips, met with the Stoic claim that the grief is not less, the grief is honest • Comparison in the algorithmic age — applying ancient Stoic philosophy to the hostile new conditions of attention, status, and the feed • A reader's guide to the source texts — where to start with Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, and Seneca, which translations to trust, and a year of practices to keep going after the last page This is not a philosophy that promises to make you invulnerable or to fix conditions you did not choose. It is practical Stoicism that promises a better relationship with them: steadier, more honest with yourself, less governed by your moods, less hostage to the moods of others. The practices are simple to describe and difficult to do, and the difficulty is the whole point. For readers of Ryan Holiday's The Daily Stoic and Donald Robertson's How to Think Like a Roman Emperor.

Psychological Healing Identity Survival Journey Grief

Audiobook details

GenrePhilosophy, Self-Help

Length7 hrs 56 mins

Narrated byListen with 1,000+ voices

FormateBook with Audio

LanguageEnglish

1Introduction

2Chapter 1: The Stoicism That Hasn’t Actually Been Sold to You

3Chapter 2: The One Dichotomy — What’s Up to You, What Isn’t

4Chapter 3: The Daily Examination

5Chapter 4: The View From Above

Show all chapters

6Chapter 5: The Premeditation of Adversity

7Chapter 6: Negative Visualization Without the Goth Theater

8Chapter 7: Voluntary Discomfort, Properly Understood

9Chapter 8: Anger as the Most Expensive Emotion

10Chapter 9: The Reserve Clause — Acting Without Attachment

11Chapter 10: Fear and the Stories You Tell Yourself

12Chapter 11: Death — The Topic Modern Culture Skips

13Chapter 12: Money, Status, and the Stoic Compromise

14Chapter 13: Difficult People — And Whether You Are One

15Chapter 14: Parenting Through Stoic Eyes

16Chapter 15: Illness, Pain, and the Body You Are Stuck With

17Chapter 16: Aging Without Bitterness

18Chapter 17: Comparison in the Algorithmic Age

19Chapter 18: Grief and the Things You Cannot Fix

20Chapter 19: Ambition vs. Equanimity

21Chapter 20: The Stoic Routine

22Chapter 21: A Life of Practice, Not a Life of Quotes

23Conclusion

24About the Author

25Appendix A: A Reader’s Guide to the Source Texts

26Appendix B: The Stoics on Specific Modern Problems

27Appendix C: Frequently Asked Questions

28Appendix D: A Year of Practices

29Appendix E: Twelve Lines Worth Sitting With

30Appendix F: The Discipline of Assent — Working with Your Own Mind

31Appendix G: Friendship, the Underdiscussed Stoic Topic

32Appendix H: Work, and What It Asks of You

33Appendix I: Sleep, Solitude, and the Practices the Stoics Did Not Name

34Appendix J: Closing Words

35Appendix K: Stoic Practices Across the Day

36Appendix L: Reading Marcus Aurelius for the First Time

37Appendix M: Reading Epictetus and Seneca — Differences That Matter

38Appendix N: Twenty Questions Readers Ask About Stoic Practice

39Appendix O: A Closing Letter

40Appendix P: Practicing When Life Is Going Well

41Appendix Q: On Teaching Stoicism to Other People

More from Lucian Webb

The Modern Stoic HandbookLucian Webb0m$9 · $0.00

More from Philosophy

The Magic PresenceGodfré Ray King10h 21m4.6 (307)$1.20 · $0.00

The Practicing StoicWard Farnsworth9h 56m4.5 (9.2K)$20

Moral Letters to LuciliusLucius Annaeus Seneca24h 35m4.4 (71.8K)$0.99 · $0.00

Lessons in TruthH. Emilie Cady3h 50m4.5 (2.4K)$20 · $0.00

The LawFrédéric Bastiat2h 7m4.4 (17K)$10

IlluminationsWalter Benjamin10h 12m4.4 (16.2K)$20 · $0.00

That Bird Has My WingsJarvis Jay Masters9h 49m4.4 (13.7K)$29 · $0.00

Tâo Teh KingLaozi2h 34m4.4 (230.9K)$2 · $0.00

SymposiumPlato3h 26m4.4 (97.9K)$1.20 · $0.00

Buddhist Boot CampTimber Hawkeye2h 39m4.4 (8.4K)$18 · $0.00

Change Your MindRJ Spina7h 5m4.6 (288)$17

Enchiridion & The Discourses of Epictetus (Annotated)Arrian Epictetus18h 9m4.4 (3.5K)$2 · $0.00

The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius AntoninusEmperor of Rome Marcus Aurelius5h 41m4.4 (1.8M)$1 · $0.00

Crime and PunishmentFyodor Dostoevsky23h 11m4.4 (1.3M)$12 · $0.00

MeditationsMarcus Aurelius5h 52m4.4 (433.7K)$1 · $0.00

Everyday DharmaSuneel Gupta5h 2m4.5 (761)$20 · $0.00

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. on LoveMartin Luther King10h 2m4.7 (94)$29 · $0.00

The KybalionThree Initiates3h 47m4.4 (35.9K)$2.30

The Joyful Wisdom ("La Gaya Scienza")Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche11h 37m4.4 (26.6K)$1 · $0.00

One sees or understands only when the mind is quiet.Jiddu Krishnamurti11h4.8 (40)$18 · $0.00

View all

More from Self-Help

Swayam Ki AwaazPrem Rawat8h 34m4.7 (1.1K)$26 · $0.00

Finding Your VoiceMannette Morgan8h 10m4.8 (187)$20

Forever BoyKate Swenson9h 27m4.7 (5K)$29 · $0.00

You Are Worth ItKyle Carpenter, Don Yaeger8h 53m4.7 (4.8K)$29 · $0.00

The Happiest Man on EarthEddie Jaku3h 48m4.6 (178K)$7 · $0.00

Finding MeViola Davis9h 15m4.6 (256.4K)$29 · $0.00

AretéBrian Johnson19h 57m4.7 (2.2K)$35

Spiritual AnatomyDaaji Kamlesh D. Patel9h 47m4.7 (319)$29 · $0.00

The Dangerous Truth about Today’s MarijuanaLaura Stack CSP, MBA9h 57m4.7 (384)$20 · $0.00

Birdie & HarlowTaylor Wolfe7h 50m4.6 (6.5K)$26 · $0.00

Ghetto BastardK’wan7h 37m4.6 (2.9K)$20

Legally YoursManasi Chaudhari8h 52m4.7 (223)$29 · $0.00

CrossroadsKaleb Dahlgren7h 56m4.6 (4.9K)$26 · $0.00

Life on the BridgeKaelynn Partlow5h 40m4.6 (1.1K)$24 · $0.00

From Questioning to KnowingLisa Barnett5h 34m4.7 (244)$17

Keep Your Love OnDanny Silk9h 4m4.6 (8.1K)$10 · $0.00

The Manifestation CodeRaimon Samsó5h 54m4.7 (655)$18

Parents And ChildrenCharlotte M. Mason13h 8m4.6 (1K)$2.30

The Tao of Joy Every DayDerek Lin10h 24m4.6 (762)$20 · $0.00

UndividedVicky Beeching9h 2m4.6 (1.3K)$29 · $0.00