Letters from a Stoic

Letters from a Stoic gathers Seneca’s Epistulae Morales, a series of 124 letters written in the final years of his life to his young friend Lucilius. Each letter is a short philosophical meditation on a specific theme of living: how to use time well, how to face illness and death with equanimity, what friendship truly requires, how to resist the corrupting influence of crowds, and what it means to live freely as a slave or a free man. Seneca writes with warmth, wit, and personal candour that is rare in ancient philosophical writing. These letters have shaped Stoic thought for two millennia, influencing figures from Michel de Montaigne to modern practitioners of cognitive behavioural therapy. A deeply humane and practical guide to the examined life.