Stoic Texts

Introduction

My opinion on original texts:

• Seneca is the most readable.
• Epictetus is the most powerful. The manual is rather readable.
• Marcus is different, this is the notebook of a powerful man practising philosophy.

A great introduction to the stoics are Pierre Hadot's Philosophy as a Way of Life (his other books are also great), especially the essays:

• Spiritual Exercises (don't let the corny title bother you)
• Philosophy as a Way of Life

But also the essay "Marcus Aurelius".

A similar but different angle are the essays by James Stockdale (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Stockdale):

• The Stoic Warrior's Triad (http://www.usna.edu/Ethics/publications/documents/stoicism1.pdf)
• Master of My Fate (http://www.usna.edu/Ethics/publications/documents/Stoicism2.pdf)
• Courage Under Fire (http://media.hoover.org/sites/default/files/documents/StockdaleCourage.pdf)

Also:

• Tim Ferris introduction to Seneca (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/04/24/on-the-shortness-of-life-an-introduction-to-seneca/)
• Ryan Holiday's Stoicism 101 (focus on Marcus Aurelius): A Beginner’s Guide for Entrepreneurs (http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/04/13/stoicism-101-a-practical-guide-for-entrepreneurs/)

Seneca

• De Vita Beata (On the happy life)
• De Tranquillitate Animi (On the tranquility of mind)
• De Brevitate Viate (On the shortness of life)

In "Moral Essays volume 2".

Online version: http://www.stoics.com/seneca_essays_book_2.html

On the same site (http://www.stoics.com/books.html) there are versions of:

• Seneca's Essays Volume I-III
• Seneca's Epistles Volume I-III

I recommend the translation by John Davie (Oxford World's Classics)

Epictetus

Online Books by Epictetus http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=Epictetus

---Discourses---

Online version: http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/discourses.html

Discourses and Selected Writings (Penguin Classics), new translation by Robert Dobbin, includes Enchiridion and "fragments" (amazon.com).

---Enchiridion (Handbook or Manual)---

Online versions:

• http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html (Elizabeth Carter translation)
• http://sacred-texts.com/cla/dep/dep102.htm (P.E Matheson (1916) translation)

Alternative version of the same text: Enchiridion

(The so-called “Golden Sayings” is a later compendium of aphorisms drawn from the Discourses and Encheiridion.)

A modern rewrite of the manual: http://www.ideonautics.com/manual2.htm

I recommend the translation by Robert Dobbin, although it does not have all the entries of the Discourses.

Alternatively, Robin Hards translation, based on Elizabeth Carter's translation of 1758.

Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

Online version: http://classics.mit.edu/Antoninus/meditations.html

Translations

The Emperor's Handbook, by C. Scott Hicks and David V. Hicks (newer, dumbed down?)

FARQUHARSON, A. S. L., The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Antoninus, Edited with Translation and Commentary, 2 vols (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1944) – arguably the definitive edition and essential for any serious study of the Meditations.

FARQUHARSON, A. S. L.,The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, With Introduction and Notes by R. B. Rutherford (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989) – an edition reprinting only the translation from Farquharson’s 1944 edition, but supplemented with a helpful introduction and a selection from the correspondence with Fronto.

Robin Hard ("Eloquent and accurate translation by Robin Hard based on the latest Greek edition.") http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Philosophy/?view=usa&ci=9780199573202

Hard versus Farquharson: http://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/1998/98.6.23.html

Hay is a new translation (and recommended by Ryan Holiday (http://fourhourworkweek.com/2009/04/13/stoicism-101-a-practical-guide-for-entrepreneurs/)):

Meditations [Paperback]
Marcus Aurelius (Author)
Gregory Hays's new translation
Publisher: Phoenix (5 July 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0753820161

Secondary Literature

The Stoics 2nd ed. F. H. Sandbach Published 1898 by Bristol Press in London . http://openlibrary.org/books/OL24151317M/The_Stoics

The stoic philosophy By Murray, Gilbert http://openlibrary.org/works/OL1243262W/The_stoic_philosophy http://www.archive.org/download/stoiephilosophy00murrgoog/stoiephilosophy00murrgoog.epub