Hi /lit/, haven't posted on this board for a long time,

Speaking of Stoicism, I gave reading meditations because every chapter I read through was a thank you letter to his mentors. Why is this often recommended as the intro to stoicism? Would anyone recommend something else other than Meditations? Sorry for hijacking your topic somewhat.

>>9186293

What the fuck do you mean every chapter? Only the first "chapter" is his gratefulness toward his mentors, and that unto itself is a strong sign of his character.

Back to the basics with you, child!

Cicero has a book on old age.

>>9186346
GREAT comment!! (This post is ironic)

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>stoicism

>>9186293
Start with Discourses by Epictetus. He's the only one whose lectures are written. Seneca and Marcus had their material ripped from private record.

>>9186268
>Ecclesiastes
>The Glass Bead Game
>Crime and Punishment

>>9186374
no THIS post is ironic

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>>9186268
I can't think of just three books.
But you know the same writers I stress. Epicurus, Stirner and the anarchist writers for a solid base of reality.
If you want brimming knowledge over a wide variety, a regular visit to encyclopedias will help.
Life experience is will take up the more specific topic. Carpentry, car maintenance, fishing, whatever.

>>9186524
>reality
Doesn't exist

Three books aren't enough to make a matured person, Anon.
browse this: https://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/l/literature/bloom/complete.html

>>9186268
just read every surviving major work of literature from antiquity

Start reading your mind

Polybius' Histories
The Bible
Grimm's Fairy Tales

>>9186524
>Anarchism

Look, an ideologue hiding his recovery of orthodox Marxism in Anarchism, how original.

>>9186268
>Has anyone ever had the privilege of having or knowing of an elderly wise grandfather brimming to the top with interesting facts and capable of having a knowledgeable discussion on almost any topic?
Yes I have, and even if our relationship is more of the kind master-pupil, I consider him one of my best friends and one the few at all, since I have a poor social life. He teached me a lot of things and he always wants to hear me talking about literature or philosophy from my own point of view because he likes to learn at any moment even if he's old

>>9186693
Very, very anglo centric.

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>Old people are wise

>>9186379
have you ever been to the outer space, past the earth's stratosphere etc

>>9186268
Old wise guys are wise because they read more than 3 books.

>>9187686
What is the problem with that?

>>9187711
>England: 74289 authors
>Any other country: 7-8 authors
My holy keks.
When are you definitively going to fuck yourselves in the ass? Fucking Anglos pathetic ignorant egocentric assholes, who the fuck do you think you are? I can't wait to see your countries devastated far and wide by your own retardation

>>9187744
Why not wish yourself up to our level, rather than us down to yours?

>>9187753
Your level? HOHOHOHO, MARRY CHRISTMAS

>>9186268
Yes, I interned for one of the richest men in my city for an entire year, I'd see him every day after college. He was one of the best lawyers in the US, was involved in a famous supreme court case where he deregulated a certain industry, began a company in that industry, and then sold that company for $300 million dollars. He retired and was beginning a startup for fun, and I interned with him for this startup.

He told me by age 16 he was able to read 100 pages per hour. I met him every other day, and he had a different book in his hand each time. Coincidentally the Stoics were his favorite. He learned Russian and French just to read Proust, Flaubert, French poetry, Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, etc. in their original prose.

We'd meet for about 2-4 hours every other day, and about half the time was spent him ranting/reminiscing. He'd have a different book with him every time we met. He could knock out 1,000 pages in a day. He had no one else to talk to, his children despised him and his second wife was a gold digging whore. I would ask him questions about the work that I already knew the answer to, but I just wanted to see his thought process. He was a true genius. Like he could seriously be president or something if he wanted, he's one of the most brilliant human beings you'll ever meet.

Some books I saw in his bag when I met with him were Tao Te Ching (he always carried it with him, and would recite entire verses of it to me), Marcus Aurelius and Seneca (same, memorized some quotes/verses), In Search of Lost Time (French version), lots of philosophy books too.

Rant topics would range from academia's incompetence, how the presidency should be abolished entirely because the insane hype and billions of $$$ in protection vastly outweighed the limited power of the president (mind you this man won multiple supreme court cases as a lawyer), simulation theory, how wealth is overrated, and more. But listening to him lay out his thought processes was brilliant, I learned more with him than I did in 4 years of college.

the only person that could fall into this category is my dad. but he isn't that old and also has never really been reading books. he has a huge amount of life experience and stories to tell, though.
when i ws a teen, i didn't
really value his ability to hold conversations and not get exhausted from difficult thoughts. now i need to calculate the ability to sleep in the next morning if i invite him for dinner since we end up discussing till atleast 3 am every time.
he's not the brightest person ever if measured in his knowledge about stem topics. i also suspect that he's actualy autistic. but when i got into philosophy, it blew my mind that he had come to all the same conclusions and had been actually living them since years. i will be forever thankfull that he teached me to think for myself since i was a little kid.

>>9187789
>his kids despise him
>got divorced and married a gold digging whore

truly, what a genius he must be

>>9187789
That's a good story.

Meditations, Seneca and TTC seem to be coming up a lot these days on /lit/ as a group.

>>9187789
Sounds like a retard

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>fables of aesop
>lattimore's iliad, plus 'or, the poem of force'
>nicomachean ethics, aristotle
>dialogues of plato
>ecclesiastes, gospels
>gibbon's history of the decline and fall...
>works of shakespeare

gustave flaubert once said if you were read deeply and thoroughly in only six books, you would be quite a scholar. read critically, thoughtfully, with commentaries and opinions, considering but never falling for dogmatism. reach decisions thoughtfully, and consider the wider implications and nuances of every single word you read.