A classic work of philosophical advice, rendered into our vivid modern vernacular.
Living wisely, living well.
Today, maybe more than ever, we need Marcus Aurelius (121-180 C.E.). Emperor, warrior, statesman, and philosopher, he was the author of this guide to life that is based on the principles of stoicism. The ancient Stoics held that human beings needed to transcend their earthly wants and selfish goals and serve humankind itself. Marcus wrote: “In so far as I am the emperor Marcus Aurelius, my home city is Rome. In so far as I am a human being, my home city is the world. What benefits these two cities—that alone is the good I pursue.” Learned Roman that he was, Marcus wrote this work not in Latin but in Greek, and certain Greek words take on resonances far beyond their dictionary meaning. He uses the word “logos” to mean not simply “word,” but rather the guiding spirit we share with the divine. As for “psyche,” he has it evoke its root sense: breath, spirit, soul. Poochigian translates Marcus’ Greek into fluent, colloquial English, at times making the emperor sound like your favorite college professor, at times your therapist. “Stubbornly focus every instant…on doing what is at hand with conscientious and unaffected dignity, kindness, freedom, and justice….Don’t you see how few things a person has to master in order to live a harmonious and pious life?” And then there is the kicker: “To a person who sees everything arrive in its due season as good…death is not a big deal.” This work has been pushing people to live well for two millennia. Now, all we must do is read it again. This new translation makes Marcus’ advice hit home in an English of unaffected dignity.
A classic work of philosophical advice, rendered into our vivid modern vernacular.Pub Date: Jan. 6, 2026
ISBN: 9781324096399
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Liveright/Norton
Review Posted Online: Sept. 27, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2025
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.
Memories and life lessons inspired by the author’s mother, who was murdered in 2021.
“Neither my mother nor I knew that her last text to me would be the words ‘Think you’ll be happy,’ ” Avant writes, "but it is fitting that she left me with a mantra for resiliency.” The author, a filmmaker and former U.S. Ambassador to the Bahamas, begins her first book on the night she learned her mother, Jacqueline Avant, had been fatally shot during a home invasion. “One of my first thoughts,” she writes, “was, ‘Oh God, please don’t let me hate this man. Give me the strength not to hate him.’ ” Daughter of Clarence Avant, known as the “Black Godfather” due to his work as a pioneering music executive, the author describes growing up “in a house that had a revolving door of famous people,” from Ella Fitzgerald to Muhammad Ali. “I don’t take for granted anything I have achieved in my life as a Black American woman,” writes Avant. “And I recognize my unique upbringing…..I was taught to honor our past and pay forward our fruits.” The book, which is occasionally repetitive, includes tributes to her mother from figures like Oprah Winfrey and Bill Clinton, but the narrative core is the author’s direct, faith-based, unwaveringly positive messages to readers—e.g., “I don’t want to carry the sadness and anger I have toward the man who did this to my mother…so I’m worshiping God amid the worst storm imaginable”; "Success and feeling good are contagious. I’m all about positive contagious vibrations!” Avant frequently quotes Bible verses, and the bulk of the text reflects the spirit of her daily prayer “that everything is in divine order.” Imploring readers to practice proactive behavior, she writes, “We have to always find the blessing, to be the blessing.”
Some of Avant’s mantras are overstated, but her book is magnanimous, inspiring, and relentlessly optimistic.Pub Date: Oct. 17, 2023
ISBN: 9780063304413
Page Count: 288
Publisher: HarperOne
Review Posted Online: Aug. 17, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2023
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