How to Keep Your Cool, Seneca
How to Keep Your Cool, Seneca
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How to Keep Your Cool
An Ancient Guide to Anger Management

Author: Seneca, James S. Romm

Narrator: P.J. Ochlan

Unabridged: 2 hr 4 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/05/2019


Synopsis

In his essay "On Anger" (De Ira), the Roman Stoic thinker Seneca (c. 4 BC–65 AD) argues that anger is the most destructive passion: "No plague has cost the human race more dear." This was proved by his own life, which he barely preserved under one wrathful emperor, Caligula, and lost under a second, Nero. This splendid new translation of essential selections from "On Anger," presented with an enlightening introduction, offers listeners a timeless guide to avoiding and managing anger.

Drawing on his great arsenal of rhetoric, including historical examples (especially from Caligula's horrific reign), anecdotes, quips, and soaring flights of eloquence, Seneca builds his case against anger with mounting intensity. Like a fire-and-brimstone preacher, he paints a grim picture of the moral perils to which anger exposes us, tracing nearly all the world's evils to this one toxic source. But he then uplifts us with a beatific vision of the alternate path, a path of forgiveness and compassion that resonates with Christian and Buddhist ethics.

Seneca's thoughts on anger have never been more relevant than today, when uncivil discourse has increasingly infected public debate. Whether seeking personal growth or political renewal, listeners will find, in Seneca's wisdom, a valuable antidote to the ills of an angry age.

About Seneca

Seneca (c. 4 BC-65 AD) was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist. As a writer Seneca is known for his philosophical works, and for his plays, which are all tragedies.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Peter

How to Keep Your Cool by Seneca/ James Romm Please vote for my Amazon review - [URL not allowed]-re... I came to this book after reading St. Thomas Aquinas's articles on anger in the Summa Theologica. I was surprised at how much the Christian saint relied on the Roman Stoic philosoph......more

Goodreads review by Greg

Maybe it was because I listened to this rather than reading it, but this came across like something written for someone who would like to read a book but just wants the 'talking points'. It felt really disjointed to listen to, a highlight reel of Seneca's essay "On Anger" with the checklist of thing......more

Goodreads review by Massimo

How to Keep Your Cool is a new translation, by James Romm, of excerpts from one of the classics of Stoic thought: Seneca's On Anger. It is one of the most useful books ever written, no hyperbole. For the Stoics, emotions come in two flavors: healthy (love, joy, a sense of justice) and unhealthy (ang......more

Goodreads review by Shane

I picked this up a few days ago after losing my cool. The book is a short selection of essays by Seneca for anyone trying to keep themselves in check. Seneca wrote them for Nero, who he was trying to influence.......more

Goodreads review by Maddy

Oh the Stoics, how I love them! This very easy to read and accessible lesson on how to manage the anger in your life was actually very helpful, having read many explanations as to why we are angry in the past and those were not always helpful or practical, Seneca however lays out useful examples and......more