Books in the Ancient Wisdom for Modern Read series

"A vibrant new translation of Seneca's "On the Shortness of Life," a pointed reminder to make the most of a precious asset: our timeWho doesn't worry sometimes that smart phones, the internet, and TV are robbing us of time and preventing us from having a life? How can we make the most of our time on earth? In the first century AD, the Stoic philosopher Seneca the Younger offered one of the most famous answers to that question in his essay, "On the Shortness of Life"-a work that has more to teach us today than ever before. In How to Have a Life, James Romm presents a vibrant new translation of Seneca's brilliant essay, plus two Senecan letters on the same theme, complete with the original Latin on facing pages and an inviting introduction.With devastating satiric wit, skillfully captured in this translation, Seneca lampoons the ways we squander our time and fail to realize how precious it is. We don't allow people to steal our money, yet we allow them to plunder our time, or else we give it away ourselves in useless, idle pursuits. Seneca also describes how we can make better use of our brief days and years. In the process, he argues, we can make our lives longer, or even everlasting, because to live a real life is to attain a kind of immortality.A counterweight to the time-sucking distractions of the modern world, How to Have a Life offers priceless wisdom about making our time-and our lives-count"--

"An entertaining and enlightening collection of ancient writings about the philosophers who advocated simple living and rejected unthinking conformity. The Cynics were ancient Greek philosophers who stood athwart the flood of society's material excess, unexamined conventions, and even norms of politeness and thundered 'No!' Diogenes, the most famous Cynic, wasn't shy about literally extending his middle finger to the world, expressing mock surprise that 'most people go crazy over a finger.' When asked why he was called Diogenes the Dog, he replied 'because I fawn on those who give, I bark at those who don't, and I bite scoundrels.' How to Say No is a delightful collection of brief ancient writings about Cynicism that captures all the outrageousness, wit, and wisdom of its remarkable cast of characters-from Diogenes in the fourth century BCE to the column-stander Symeon Stylites in late antiquity. With their 'less is more' approach to life, the Cynics speak urgently to our world of climate change, economic uncertainty, and psychic malaise. Although the Cynics weren't writers, their memorable utterances and behavior were recorded by their admirers and detractors, and M. D. Usher offers fresh new translations of appealing selections from this body of writing-ranging from street sermons and repartee to biography and snapshots of Cynics in action.Complete with introductions to the volume and each selection as well as the original Greek and Latin on facing pages, this lively book demonstrates why the Cynics still retain their power to surprise us and make us laugh-and to make us think and question how we live"--