Pillar / Texts
Texts
The surviving works through which we actually encounter Stoic philosophy. These pages explain and contextualize each text; they don't reproduce full translations, which remain under copyright in most modern editions.
Marcus Aurelius
A private notebook of Stoic self-reminders, never intended for publication.
Text
Meditations
What Meditations by Marcus Aurelius actually is, a private notebook of Stoic self-reminders, not a book written for an audience, and how to read it.
Epictetus
A former slave's teaching, preserved by his student Arrian in two forms: a condensed handbook and a fuller record of the lectures themselves.
Text
Enchiridion
What the Enchiridion is, Epictetus's short handbook of Stoic practice compiled by his student Arrian, and why it's often the first Stoic text people read.
Text
Discourses
What the Discourses are, Arrian's record of Epictetus's actual classroom teaching, longer and more exploratory than the condensed Enchiridion.
Seneca
Essays and letters written by a Roman statesman applying Stoic ethics to real political risk, wealth, anger, and mortality.
Text
Letters to Lucilius
What the Letters to Lucilius are, Seneca's 124 philosophical letters written near the end of his life, and why they're an accessible way into Roman Stoicism.
Text
On the Shortness of Life
What On the Shortness of Life is, Seneca's essay arguing that life is long enough if you stop wasting it, and why it's still widely read today.
Text
On Anger
What On Anger is, Seneca's three-book treatise on the causes and cure of anger, and the source of the Stoic "first movements" distinction.
Each text page connects to its author's philosopher page and to the concepts it's a primary source for. New to Stoicism? What Is Stoicism? covers the whole picture in one page.