On the Shortness of Life
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Narrated by:
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Victor Craig
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By:
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Seneca
About this listen
Lucius Annaeus Seneca, known as Seneca the Younger (c. 4 BC - AD 65), is the author of On the Shortness of Life (c. 49 AD). In it, Seneca draws insight from different streams of ancient wisdom: Stoic, Epicurean, Platonic, Skeptic and Cynic, as he addresses some of the important questions humans face. Seneca encourages people to be mindful of time and to use it purposefully. He suggests awareness and acceptance as a remedy for many worries and wasteful dissipations. We need to be aware of how we spend our time, and ideally, plan to spend it wisely. Acceptance of death is necessary for peace of mind, and will, in turn, make us appreciate our limited time all the more.
Chapters 2 to 9 survey the many ways in which life is squandered and time frittered away by people who are preoccupied by pointless pursuits. Chapters 10 to 17 contrast the philosophical approach to leisure (with the deluded common approach. This culminates in Chapters 18 to 20 that show the emancipation of the wise, who can soar above the lives of those mired in preoccupation.
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fantastic
- By Aleksander on 11-09-16
By: Plato
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Dialogues of Plato
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Pat Bottino
- Length: 5 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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The Dialogues of Plato rank with the writings of Aristotle as the most important and influential philosophical works in Western thought. In them Plato cast his teacher Socrates as the central disputant in colloquies that brilliantly probe a vast spectrum of philosophical ideas and issues.
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Not Complete Dialogues
- By Jill on 08-30-07
By: Plato
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The Roman Way
- By: Edith Hamilton
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 6 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
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Edith Hamilton shows us Rome through the eyes of the Romans. Plautus and Terence, Cicero and Caesar, Catullus, Horace, Virgil, and Augustus come to life in their ambitions, their work, their loves and hates. In them we see reflected a picture of Roman life very different from that fixed in our minds through schoolroom days, and far livelier.
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Not so bad
- By steve on 04-25-11
By: Edith Hamilton
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The Greek Way
- By: Edith Hamilton
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 8 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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Based on a thorough study of Greek life and civilization, of Greek literature, philosophy, and art, The Greek Way interprets their meaning and brings a realization of the refuge and strength the past can be to us in the troubled present. Miss Hamilton's book must take its place with the few interpretative volumes which are permanently rooted and profoundly alive in our literature.
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...Not as Good as The Echo of Greece
- By The Masked Reviewer on 11-04-16
By: Edith Hamilton
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The Wisdom of Life, Counsels and Maxims
- By: Arthur Schopenhauer
- Narrated by: David Rintoul
- Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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'The two foes of human happiness are pain and boredom.' Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) was one of the most influential philosophers of the 19th century because his humanistic, atheistic, if pessimistic views chimed with a new secularism that was emerging from a Western society dominated by religion. Despite his rather forbidding image (and a few outdated views), he is one of the most approachable German philosophers, and this is certainly evident in these two key works, The Wisdom of Life and Counsels and Maxims.
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depressingly hopeful
- By Sebastian huerta on 06-22-17
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Discourses: Complete Books 1-4
- Adapted for the Contemporary Reader (Harris Classics)
- By: Epictetus, James Harris
- Narrated by: Greg Douras
- Length: 8 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
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The Discourses of Epictetus are a series of extracts from the teachings of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus. This is the complete version containing books one - four. Each book has been carefully adapted in to modern English to allow for easy listening. Enjoy.
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Classic work that is too often overlooked . . .
- By Bill Beaulac on 05-29-18
By: Epictetus, and others
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The History of Rasselas, Prince of Abissinia
- By: Samuel Johnson
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 4 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Rasselas and his companions escape the pleasures of the "happy valley" in order to make their "choice of life". By witnessing the misfortunes and miseries of others they come to understand the nature of happiness and value it more highly. Their travels and enquiries raise important practical and philosophical questions concerning many aspects of the human condition, including the business of a poet, the stability of reason, the immortality of the soul, and how to find contentment.
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1759 classic
- By Kindle Customer on 01-29-23
By: Samuel Johnson
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The Art of Worldly Wisdom
- By: Balthasar Gracian
- Narrated by: Keira Grace
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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The Art of Worldly Wisdom was written in 1647. It is a collection of 300 maxims on various topics, each elaborated with a commentary. The sayings offer advice and guidance on how to live well, advance socially, and be a better person.
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Terrible Narration
- By John P. Owens on 08-31-22
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Self Reliance
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Alana Munro
- Length: 1 hr and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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The most thorough statement of one of Emerson's recurrent themes, the need for each individual to avoid conformity and false consistency, and follow his or her own instincts and ideas. It is the source of one of Emerson's most famous quotations, "A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." This essay is a considered a watershed moment in which transcendentalism became a major cultural movement. An American classic.
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Don't buy this
- By Leah L on 07-31-16
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Oroonoko
- By: Aphra Behn
- Narrated by: Clare Wille
- Length: 3 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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A vivid love story and adventure tale, Oroonoko is a heroic slave narrative about a royal prince and his fight for freedom. The eponymous hero, Oroonoko, deemed royalty in one world and slave in another, is torn from his noble status and betrayed into slavery in Surinam, where he is reduced to chains, fetters, and shackles. But his high spirit and admirable character will not be suppressed.
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Outstanding Narration, Story Less So
- By Carsley on 07-14-18
By: Aphra Behn
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Essays by Ralph Waldo Emerson
- By: Ralph Waldo Emerson
- Narrated by: Jeff Riggenbach
- Length: 14 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Here in one volume are both the Essays: First Series and Essays: Second Series from one of the most influential philosophers in American history. Although Ralph Waldo Emerson, perhaps America’s most famous philosopher, did not wish to be referred to as a transcendentalist, he is nevertheless considered the founder of this major movement of nineteenth-century American thought. Emerson was influenced by a liberal religious training; theological study; personal contact with the Romanticists Coleridge, Carlyle, and Wordsworth; and a strong indigenous sense of individualism and self-reliance.
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Riggenbach's Essays, Not Emerson's
- By Jake Behm on 12-01-15
What listeners say about On the Shortness of Life
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- cyangyic
- 09-28-21
Stiff
I thought the sample sounded good, but after listening to the full thing, realized somehow the reading sounded unnecessarily dry, it added more distance than the vintage of the writer could. Sounds like a rigid clergy. The book is a private journal of a humble emperor. A mismatch in style.
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