The ancient roots of self-help - Deepstash
The ancient roots of self-help

The ancient roots of self-help

Curated from: bbc.com

Ideas, facts & insights covering these topics:

5 ideas

·

1.04K reads

11

Explore the World's Best Ideas

Join today and uncover 100+ curated journeys from 50+ topics. Unlock access to our mobile app with extensive features.

Stoicism: Foundations Of Self-Help

  • Founded by Zeno, Stoicism states that our emotions get their wings by our thoughts, while our feelings are based on our beliefs. The key to living is to be virtuous and move in harmony with nature. Bad things will keep happening, just don't’ get so hung up by that.
  • Marcus Aurelius, a great Stoic thinker, wrote that if we are pained by an external factor, our own judgement about that is the problem. It is in our own hands to change our judgement.
  • Psychotherapy, or paying attention to ourselves and the wellbeing of our souls was suggested by Socrates, while he was facing execution.

25

283 reads

A Philosophical Consolation

  • The Roman philosopher Boethius was on death row as he fell out of favour with the King in the year 524 AD. He wrote his last work, Consolations in Philosophy while awaiting death.
  • He wrote about why bad things happen, why bad men prosper and live in wealth, while good men stay poor and get killed.
  • The life manual written on the brink of death became highly popular in the middle ages, read by people like Queen Elizabeth I and King Alfred.

14

205 reads

The Prince

In the 16th century, Niccolo Macchiavelli’s The Prince became a huge hit among kings and politicians.

The book suggested certain immoral ways to rule a kingdom, with famous advice like ‘The end justifies the means’. The guidelines resonated so much that the book is still a huge influence.

12

214 reads

The Anatomy of Melancholy

In the 16th Century, Robert Burton wrote about the human condition, which can be classified as melancholy, a big book consisting of sad tales about everything, but written in a simple, readable style.

It was like an encyclopedia of misery, with the writer meditating on sad things just to keep his mind off them.

14

172 reads

Self-Help: The Book

Self-published in the 19th century, ‘Self-help’ by Samuel Smiles illustrated and executed the power of perseverance.

It was an international bestseller, kickstarting the ‘self-help’ genre itself after making the publishing industry sit up and take notice.

14

169 reads

IDEAS CURATED BY

bstripes

Collecting ideas that inspired me. Hope to inspire u 2.

Black Stripes's ideas are part of this journey:

How to Be Happy

Learn more about personaldevelopment with this collection

How to find purpose and meaning in life

How to cultivate gratitude

Techniques for managing negative thoughts

Related collections

Read & Learn

20x Faster

without
deepstash

with
deepstash

with

deepstash

Personalized microlearning

100+ Learning Journeys

Access to 200,000+ ideas

Access to the mobile app

Unlimited idea saving

Unlimited history

Unlimited listening to ideas

Downloading & offline access

Supercharge your mind with one idea per day

Enter your email and spend 1 minute every day to learn something new.

Email

I agree to receive email updates