Product Description
Epictetus, a Greek stoic and freed slave, ran a thriving philosophy school in Nicropolis in the early second century AD. His animated discussions were celebrated for their rhetorical wizardry and were written down by Arrian, his most famous pupil. Together with the Enchiridion, a manual of his main ideas, and the fragments collected here, The Discourses argue that happiness lies in learning to perceive exactly what is in our power to change and what is not, and in embracing our fate to live in harmony with god and nature. In this personal, practical guide to the ethics of stoicism and moral self-improvement, Epictetus tackles questions of freedom and imprisonment, illness and fear, family, friendship and love, and leaves an intriguing document of daily life in the classical world.

About the Author
Epictetus (c. 55–135 AD) was a teacher and Greco-Roman philosopher. Originally a slave from Hierapolis in Anatolia (modern Turkey), he was owned for a time by a prominent freedman at the court of the emperor Nero. After gaining his freedom he moved to Nicopolis on the Adriatic coast of Greece and opened a school of philosophy there. His informal lectures (the Discourses) were transcribed and published by his student Arrian, who also composed a digest of Epictetus’ teaching known as the Manual (or Enchiridion).

 
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In the Nicomachean Ethics, Aristotle sets out to examine the nature of happiness.

He argues that happiness consists in ‘activity of the soul in accordance with virtue’, for example with moral virtues, such as courage, generosity and justice, and intellectual virtues, such as knowledge, wisdom and insight. The Ethics also discusses the nature of practical reasoning, the value and the objects of pleasure, the different forms of friendship, and the relationship between individual virtue, society and the State. Aristotle’s work has had a profound and lasting influence on all subsequent Western thought about ethical matters.

About the Author

Aristotle was born in 384 BC, and studied in Athens under Plato. His writings were of extraordinary range, and many of them have survived. He died in 323 BC.

 
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The ripe sayings of the Ancient Wisdom, as spoken again in the world of Greece–a world so much vaster than the area of the Greek peninsula–are somewhat fading from the minds born anew into the hurrying life of the twentieth-century West. But the West cannot afford to let them fade away, for more than ever are they needed now to breathe their undying music into the ears stunned with the clashing discords of a materialistic and luxurious civilization. Life grows too crowded and too showy; crowded, not full–for crowd is from without, fullness from within; showy,

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not splendid–for show is the veneer of wealth covering a base metal, while splendour is the gleam of the golden thread of stateliness interwoven with the silken web of noble character. Sorely is needed in such a life the strong, pure teaching of the elder days, when learning was held to be richer than wealth, and simplicity finer than lavishness. The Greece of Pythagoras, with its mathematics and music–order and harmony–has a message for the modern nations, disorderly and discordant, and this message may best come through those who, their own natures attuned by brooding over the Pythagorean wisdom, can teach by life more than by word “the Beauty which was Greece.” Read more…

This detailed study of the lives and teachings of Confucius and Socrates compares how and what they taught in order to help others to become wiser. The appendix includes English translations of ancient texts describing their teaching in action.

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In a series of posts I will take you way back to some of the earliest Egyptian philosophers and sages in antiquity who imparted their writings (mostly in hieroglyphic form), maxims and quotes displaying their wisdom and virtues that have stood the test of time.

First we will discover the wise maxims of Ptahhotep, sometimes known as Ptahhotpe or Ptah-Hotep, who was an ancient Egyptian official during the late 25th century BC and early 24th century BC.

I will then share with you the quotes of wisdom of Akhenaten, who scholars described as the most progressive of pharaohs, and who took Egypt one step ahead of its time.

Then we will focus on Hermes Trismegistus who was the eponymous author of the writings that were attributed to him.  Hermes, who was suppose to be a contemporary of Moses, was also recognised as being the Greek god Hermes, and the Egyptian god Thoth.

Impact of Ancient Egypt on the World

As for the contributions towards humankind’s progress by some of the earliest known civilizations, it is fair to say that the modern world should be indebted for much of the knowledge it now possesses, most of which was derived from ancient Egypt and Greece.

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