A very easy read. I found it somewhat motivating, but also found myself thinking: couldn't you come up with a similar set of anecdotes and aphorisms to support just about any point of view. ( )

Not bad at all, provides a lot of insights through a myriad of examples of people throughout history. All the characters in this are inspiring and interesting to hear about aspects of them I didn’t know about, like seeing the queen in a new light. The only issue with it for me is that it does not make me feel inspired to be better just instilling in me the knowledge of what to do to be better. ( )

What we know about an author affects how we read their books. Ryan Holiday is a young businessman, a college dropout, who lives on a ranch in Texas and writes about things like marketing. Had I know that, would I have picked up a book he wrote about philosophy? Probably not. But I knew nothing at all about the author when I read this book, which is a good thing. Holiday is on a mission to make the writings of the ancient Greek and Roman stoics seem cool. To do that, he tells stories — very much like Malcolm Gladwell, though not as good — using well-known figures like the late Queen Elizabeth II, Winston Churchill, Dwight D. Eisenhower, Martin Luther King and endless American sports figures I’ve never heard of. The stories are often quite good, sometimes even moving. As the author intended, the book (the second in a series he’s writing about Stoic virtues) has awakened my interest in the subject of Stoicism. It has also strengthened my own commitment to increased self-discipline. The writing style is very informal, the examples pretty much all American, but it’s a fast read, very accessible, and you will learn stuff. ( )