3 Life Changing Books Recommended by Ryan Holiday
These are some of the best books I’ve ever read
Ryan Holiday is one of my favourite authors. He’s written countless best selling books such as Discipline is Destiny, Ego Is The Enemy, Stillness is the Key to name just a few, and to be honest, I’m yet to read a bad book of his.
However, it’s not just the books he’s written which have impact my life, but also the books he recommends.
So here 3 of Ryan Holiday’s Favourite Books That Changed My Life…
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius
Meditations is a series of personal writings written by former Roman Emperor and one of the most powerful and influential people who’s ever lived, Marcus Aurelius. Written between AD 161 to 180, Marcus writes about his personal thoughts on living a good life, and offers some of the most invaluable wisdom you’ll ever receive.
I think Meditations has had such a big affect on me because it shows that the most important things in life still haven’t changed over the course of thousands of years, and to this day we still have the same problems as people did back then, and yet here we are still trying to solve them.
and probably won’t whether you are an Emperor of the worlds greatest empire, or just a regular person.
Ryan Holiday describes Meditations as “the greatest book ever written”, and it’s hard to disagree with him and I’d go as far as saying it’s the best book I’ve ever read too.
Whether you’re an Emperor to the worlds greatest empire, or you’re just a regular person like me, I guarantee you’ll benefit enormously from reading Meditations
Here are a few quotes from Meditations:
“Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one.”
“You could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do and say and think.”
“Choose not to be harmed — and you won’t feel harmed. Don’t feel harmed — and you haven’t been.”
Letters from a Stoic by Seneca
Seneca is one of the three most renowned and respected Stoic philosophers, alongside Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus. In Meditations Marcus Aurelius was writing primarily to himself whereas in Letters from a Stoic, Seneca is writing letters (124 in total) to his friend Lucilus, an official in Ancient Rome, advising him how to become a better man and a better stoic.
Even though Letters from a Stoic is was written such a long time ago, you’d be forgiven for thinking that it doesn’t have much relevance in today’s society, but you’d be so wrong. The book is jam packed with some of the best and most invaluable life advice you’ll ever find, to help you live a more virtuous, happy and fulfilling life.
It’s without shadow of a doubt one of the best books I’ve had the privilege of reading.
Here are a few quotes from Letters from A Stoic:
“If you really want to escape the things that harass you, what you’re needing is not to be in a different place but to be a different person.”
“It is not the man who has too little that is poor, but the one who hankers after more.”
“Until we have begun to go without them, we fail to realize how unnecessary many things are.”
The Choice by Edith Eger
The Choice is a memoir written by internationally acclaimed psychologist and Holocaust survivor, Dr. Edith Eger. In the Choice, Edith tells her horrifying, down right shocking story on how she survived the unbearable tortures of Auschwitz for eight whole months. Some of the horrors she saw and miraculously survived are totally beyond our comprehension.
Auschwitz took everything away from Edith. It took the lives of her parents, her fiancé, it literally broke her back. Her life couldn’t have been much worse. She could’ve spent the rest of her life reminiscing on the horrendous, unbearable things that happened to her and hundreds of thousands of others, but she made the choice to pull herself through.
The Choice acts a reminder that no matter that we go through, we always have the privilege to make a choice. We can choose to be the victims and feel sorry for ourselves, or we can choose to stand up straight, keep marching forward, and make the most out of every situation life dedides to throw at us.
It’s by far and away one of the best books I have read this year. It’s MUST read.
Here are a few quotes from The Choice:
“We don’t know where we’re going, we don’t know what’s going to happen, but no one can take away from you what you put in your own mind.”
“Our painful experiences aren’t a liability — they’re a gift. They give us perspective and meaning, an opportunity to find our unique purpose and our strength.”
“Perfectionism is the belief that something is broken — you. So you dress up your brokenness with degrees, achievements, accolades, pieces of paper, none of which can fix what you think you are fixing.”
Happy reading,
See you next time,
Tom