The Quest for Character
What the Story of Socrates and Alcibiades Teaches Us About Our Search for Good Leaders
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The Quest for Character
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Narrated by:
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Alan Carlson
About this listen
What Socrates’s greatest failure reveals about an ancient question: Can we teach our leaders to be better people?
Is good character something that can be taught? In 430 BCE, Socrates set out to teach the vain, power-seeking Athenian statesman Alcibiades how to be a good person—and failed spectacularly. Alcibiades went on to beguile his city into a hopeless war with Syracuse, and all of Athens paid the price.
In The Quest for Character, philosophy professor Massimo Pigliucci tells this famous story and asks what we can learn from it. He blends ancient sources with modern interpretations to give a full picture of the philosophy and cultivation of character, virtue, and personal excellence—what the Greeks called arete. At heart, The Quest for Character isn’t simply about what makes a good leader. Drawing on Socrates as well as his followers among the Stoics, this book gives us lessons perhaps even more crucial: how we can each lead an excellent life.
©2022 Massimo Pigliucci (P)2022 Basic BooksListeners also enjoyed...
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 68
In this groundbreaking work, Kwame Anthony Appiah, hailed as "one of the most relevant philosophers today" (New York Times Book Review), changes the way we understand human behavior and the way social reform is brought about. In brilliantly arguing that new democratic movements over the last century have not been driven by legislation from above, Appiah explores the end of the duel in aristocratic England, the tumultuous struggles over foot binding in 19th-century China, the uprising of ordinary people against Atlantic slavery, and much more.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Horribly Boring
- By Merle N. Savedow on 02-10-21
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Confucius
- And the World He Created
- By: Michael Schuman
- Narrated by: Steven Menache
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 60
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 47
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 47
Confucius is perhaps the most important philosopher in history. Today his teachings shape the daily lives of more than 1.6 billion people. Throughout East Asia, Confucius' influence can be seen in everything from business practices and family relationships to educational standards and government policies. Even as Western ideas from Christianity to Communism have bombarded the region, Confucius' doctrine has endured as the foundation of East Asian culture.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
all you need to know about the Chinese
- By Luke on 03-02-16
By: Michael Schuman
-
Constantine the Emperor
- By: David Potter
- Narrated by: Phil Holland
- Length: 11 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance3.5 out of 5 stars 79
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 79
This year Christians worldwide will celebrate the 1700th anniversary of Constantine's conversion and victory at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge. No Roman emperor had a greater impact on the modern world than did Constantine. The reason is not simply that he converted to Christianity but that he did so in a way that brought his subjects along after him. Indeed, this major new biography argues that Constantine's conversion is but one feature of a unique administrative style that enabled him to take control of an empire beset by internal rebellions and external threats by Persians and Goths.
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4 out of 5 stars
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In this sign thou shalt conquer!
- By Darwin8u on 06-11-18
By: David Potter
-
The Year of Our Lord 1943
- Christian Humanism in an Age of Crisis
- By: Alan Jacobs
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 8 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 64
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
By early 1943, it had become increasingly clear the Allies would win the Second World War. Christian intellectuals on both sides of the Atlantic thought the soon-to-be-victorious nations were not culturally or morally prepared for their success. These Christian intellectuals - Jacques Maritain, T. S. Eliot, C. S. Lewis, W. H. Auden, and Simone Weil, among others - sought both to articulate a sober and reflective critique of their own culture and to outline a plan for the moral and spiritual regeneration of their countries in the post-war world.
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1 out of 5 stars
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The Audible is a Train Wreck
- By John on 09-04-18
By: Alan Jacobs
-
Stay
- A History of Suicide and the Philosophies Against It
- By: Jennifer Michael Hecht
- Narrated by: Jennifer Michael Hecht
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 147
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 129
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 130
Worldwide, more people die by suicide than by murder, and many more are left behind to grieve. Despite distressing statistics that show suicide rates rising, the subject, long a taboo, is infrequently talked about. In this sweeping intellectual and cultural history, poet and historian Jennifer Michael Hecht channels her grief for two friends lost to suicide into a search for history’s most persuasive arguments against the irretrievable act, arguments she hopes to bring back into public consciousness.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Informative but oddly dispassionate
- By Scott on 01-07-14
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On Grand Strategy
- By: John Lewis Gaddis
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 970
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 819
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 811
For over 20 years, a select group of Yale undergraduates has been admitted into the year-long "Grand Strategy" seminar team-taught by John Lewis Gaddis and Paul Kennedy. Its purpose: to provide a grounding in strategic decision-making in the face of crisis to prepare future American leaders for important work. Now, John Lewis Gaddis has transposed the experience of that course into a wonderfully succinct, lucid and inspirational book, a view from the commanding heights of statesmanship across the landscape of world history from the ancient Greeks to Lincoln, and beyond.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Interesting, but fails to offer real lessons.
- By Zack on 07-04-18
-
Passionate Sage
- The Character and Legacy of John Adams
- By: Joseph J. Ellis
- Narrated by: Tom Parker
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 275
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 243
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 241
John Adams, one of the Founding Fathers of our nation and its second president, spent nearly the last third of his life in retirement, grappling with contradictory views of his place in history and fearing his reputation would not fare well in the generations after his death. And indeed, future generations did slight him, elevating Jefferson and Madison to lofty heights while Adams remained way back in the second tier.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Stays true to Audible's description
- By Neil on 10-24-09
By: Joseph J. Ellis
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Plato's Crito
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Ray Childs
- Length: 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 137
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 122
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Story5 out of 5 stars 123
The Athenian court has found Socrates guilty and sentenced him to death. While he is waiting to be executed, his friend, Crito, comes to the prison to persuade him to escape and go into exile. Socrates responds by examining the essence of law and community, probing the various kinds of law and making distinctions that go far beyond the particular issue of whether or not Socrates should escape.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Bravo!
- By Byron on 10-12-16
By: Plato
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Cicero: The Life and Times of Rome's Greatest Politician
- By: Anthony Everitt
- Narrated by: John Curless
- Length: 15 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,447
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,282
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 1,278
In this dynamic and engaging biography, Anthony Everitt plunges us into the fascinating, scandal-ridden world of ancient Rome in its most glorious heyday. Accessible to us through his legendary speeches but also through an unrivaled collection of unguarded letters to his close friend Atticus, Cicero comes to life here as a witty and cunning political operator.
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4 out of 5 stars
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An eloquent man, and a patriot
- By Darwin8u on 01-19-15
By: Anthony Everitt
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The Dream of Enlightenment
- The Rise of Modern Philosophy
- By: Anthony Gottlieb
- Narrated by: Anthony Gottlieb
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 195
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 173
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 169
In The Dream of Enlightenment, Anthony Gottlieb expertly navigates a second great explosion of thought, taking us to northern Europe in the wake of its wars of religion and the rise of Galilean science. In a relatively short period - from the early 1640s to the eve of the French Revolution - Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Locke, Leibniz, and Hume all made their mark. The Dream of Enlightenment tells their story and that of the birth of modern philosophy.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Enlightenment meets Neuroscience
- By Rodger on 12-05-19
By: Anthony Gottlieb
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The Enlightenment
- And Why It Still Matters
- By: Anthony Pagden
- Narrated by: Robert Blumenfeld
- Length: 16 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 126
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 110
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 111
One of our most renowned and brilliant historians takes a fresh look at the revolutionary intellectual movement that laid the foundation for the modern world. Liberty and equality. Human rights. Freedom of thought and expression. Belief in reason and progress. The value of scientific inquiry. These are just some of the ideas that were conceived and developed during the Enlightenment, and which changed forever the intellectual landscape of the Western world.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A thorough political tract rather than history
- By Jacobus on 03-08-14
By: Anthony Pagden
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Our Declaration
- A Reading of the Declaration of Independence in Defense of Equality
- By: Danielle Allen
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 58
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 58
In just 1,337 words, the Declaration of Independence changed the world, but curiously it is now rarely read from start to finish, much less understood. Unsettled by this, Danielle Allen read the text quietly with students and discovered its animating power. "Bringing the analytical skills of a philosopher, the voice of a gifted memoirist, and the spirit of a soulful humanist to the task, Allen manages to find new meaning in Thomas Jefferson' s understanding of equality," says Joseph J. Ellis about Our Declaration.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Second Most Interesting Book I've Ever Read
- By Christopher on 01-27-15
By: Danielle Allen
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The Metaphysical Club
- By: Louis Menand
- Narrated by: Henry Leyva
- Length: 6 hrs and 53 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 304
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 167
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 163
Hardly a club in the conventional sense, the organization referred to in the title of this superb literary hybrid (part history, part biography, part philosophy) consisted of four members and probably existed for less than nine months.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The Great American Experiment
- By Victoria on 12-08-03
By: Louis Menand
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A Wicked Company
- The Forgotten Radicalism of the European Enlightenment
- By: Philipp Blom
- Narrated by: James Patrick Cronin
- Length: 14 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 34
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 33
The flourishing of radical philosophy in Baron Thierry Holbach’s Paris salon from the 1750s to the 1770s stands as a seminal event in Western history. Holbach’s house was an international epicenter of revolutionary ideas and intellectual daring, bringing together such original minds as Denis Diderot, Laurence Sterne, David Hume, Adam Smith, Ferdinando Galiani, Horace Walpole, Benjamin Franklin, Guillaume Raynal, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. In A Wicked Company, acclaimed historian Philipp Blom retraces the fortunes of this exceptional group of friends.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Book on Radical Enlightenment
- By EJJ on 02-15-15
By: Philipp Blom
-
The Problem of Democracy
- The Presidents Adams Confront the Cult of Personality
- By: Nancy Isenberg, Andrew Burstein
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 22 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 46
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 42
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 42
John and John Quincy Adams: rogue intellectuals, unsparing truth-tellers, too uncensored for their own political good. They held that political participation demanded moral courage. They did not seek popularity (it showed). They lamented the fact that hero worship in America substituted idolatry for results; and they made it clear that they were talking about Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Andrew Jackson. When John Adams succeeded George Washington as President, his son had already followed him into public service and was stationed in Europe as a diplomat.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Very insightful and rewarding adding understanding
- By William on 05-12-19
By: Nancy Isenberg, and others
-
The Cave and the Light
- Plato Versus Aristotle, and the Struggle for the Soul of Western Civilization
- By: Arthur Herman
- Narrated by: Paul Hecht
- Length: 25 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 525
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 458
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 457
The Cave and the Light reveals how two Greek philosophers became the twin fountainheads of Western culture, and how their rivalry gave Western civilization its unique dynamism down to the present.
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1 out of 5 stars
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All of Western Philosphy Leads to Ayn Rand?!?
- By Leslie on 06-22-15
By: Arthur Herman
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An ancient belief system made new, Stoicism teaches us how to accept the things we cannot change and how to live a good life. It helps us improve our outlook, increase our well-being, and thrive in the face of adversity. But how does one live like a Stoic? In A Handbook for New Stoics, renowned philosopher Massimo Pigliucci and practitioner Gregory Lopez guide listeners through 52 weekly lessons, each based on a common obstacle. Stressing out about a meeting at work? Try listing the things you can control and those you can’t. Plus much more!
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Distilled to its essence, the ancient Greco-Roman philosophy known as Stoicism is a philosophy of personal betterment. Professor Pigliucci, who knows firsthand just how transformative a Stoic approach to life can be, has designed these 25 lessons as an enlightening introduction to the basics of Stoic philosophy and ways to incorporate its lessons into your own life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A lot to love. A little to object to.
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Marcus Aurelius
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 72
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This novel biography brings Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE) to life for a new generation by exploring the emperor’s fascinating psychological journey. Donald J. Robertson examines Marcus’s relationships with key figures in his life, such as his mother, Domitia Lucilla, and the emperor Hadrian, as well as his Stoic tutors. He draws extensively on Marcus’s own Meditations and correspondence, and he examines the emperor’s actions as detailed in the Augustan History and other ancient texts.
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Stoicism is a philosophy, a worldview, and a transformational practice. Throughout the centuries everyone from kings and presidents to Silicone Valley entrepreneurs have drawn inspiration and wisdom from Stoicism. The best way to learn about Stoic philosophy is always to go back to the foundation—the original texts. Three writers form the bedrock of Stoic thought: Marcus Aurelius, a Roman Emperor; Seneca, a playwright and advisor; and Epictetus, a former slave turned philosopher and teacher. Stoic Foundations combines the work of these three pillars of Stoic thought into one essential volume.
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How to Live a Good Life
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This thought-provoking, wide-ranging collection brings together essays by 15 leading philosophers reflecting on what it means to live according to a philosophy of life. From Eastern philosophies (Daoism, Confucianism, and Buddhism) and classical Western philosophies (such as Aristotelianism and Stoicism), to the four major religions, as well as contemporary philosophies (such as existentialism and effective altruism), each contributor offers a lively, personal account of how they find meaning in the practice of their chosen philosophical tradition.
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2 out of 5 stars
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hit and miss
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Breakfast with Seneca
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In Breakfast with Seneca, philosopher David Fideler mines Seneca's classic works in a series of focused chapters, clearly explaining Seneca's ideas without oversimplifying them. Best enjoyed as a daily ritual, like an energizing cup of coffee, Seneca's wisdom provides us with a steady stream of time-tested advice about the human condition - which, as it turns out, hasn't changed much over the past 2,000 years.
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A Philosophical Breakfast
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Nonsense on Stilts
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Why do people believe bunk? And what causes them to embrace such pseudoscientific beliefs and practices? Noted skeptic Massimo Pigliucci sets out to separate the fact from the fantasy in this entertaining exploration of the nature of science, the borderlands of fringe science, and - borrowing a famous phrase from philosopher Jeremy Bentham - the nonsense on stilts.
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Thought provoking and relevant
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Aristotle's Way
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From renowned classicist Edith Hall, Aristotle's Way is an examination of one of history's greatest philosophers, showing us how to lead happy, fulfilled, and meaningful lives.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Full of Political Opinion
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A Guide to the Good Life
- The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy
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One of the great fears many of us face is that despite all our effort and striving, we will discover at the end that we have wasted our life. In A Guide to the Good Life, William B. Irvine plumbs the wisdom of Stoic philosophy, one of the most popular and successful schools of thought in ancient Rome, and shows how its insight and advice are still remarkably applicable to modern lives. In A Guide to the Good Life, Irvine offers a refreshing presentation of Stoicism, showing how this ancient philosophy can still direct us toward a better life.
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3 out of 5 stars
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A very readable introduction, needs more meat
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What listeners say about The Quest for Character
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story2 out of 5 stars
- Kim A Jackson
- 10-14-22
Not as wonderful as his other books
Good information but not as charming or enlightening as his other works. A bit let down.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Carlson Factory
- 02-19-23
Transformational Reading
This is a great foundational guild to the path of virtue and the building blocks of a good and worthy character.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
-
Story5 out of 5 stars
- Roberto H. Castro
- 10-29-22
Thought Provoking
This book presents an age-old question and provides us thoughts from wise people on what it takes to develop and maintain a good character. The list provided at the end is superb. The sources cited are ones I will investigate in my journey.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 09-07-23
The best stoic character text
Concise. Excellent reading. Will listen again and again, and recommend it to others. Thank you.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Cameron
- 11-14-22
another great work by Massimo
only suggestion would be to include a PDF of the syllabus in last chapter with the audio book
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall1 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story1 out of 5 stars
- Stefan Vale
- 12-22-23
Disappointing
This book uses long winded ancient historical references, and warped current events (including debunked COVID “scamdemic” propaganda) to explain how character traits from Stoicism can be applied to live a more productive life. Next time, just stick to the philosophy and leave out the political bias and mass psychological manipulation.
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