How to Have Willpower: An Ancient Guide to Not Giving In
selected and translated by Michael Fontaine
Recommendations from our site
“Here at Five Books, we have a soft spot for the Ancient Wisdom for Modern Readers series from Princeton University Press, in which timeless advice from the Classical greats is collected by theme and offered in new translation. In August, they released How to Have Willpower: An Ancient Guide to Not Giving In, which features Plutarch’s essay ‘On Dysōpia’ (for which translator Michael Fontaine offers the alternate title ‘How to Resist Pressure’) and Prudentius’s poetic allegory ‘Psychomachia’ (or, ‘How to Slay Your Demons’), in which temptation is represented as a war within in the human soul. A radically different approach to that of popular psychology, but you may find counsel in these ancient meditations on enduring human difficulties.” Read more...
Our most recommended books
-
Stumbling on Happiness
by Daniel Gilbert -
Popular: The Power of Likability in a Status-Obsessed World
by Mitch Prinstein -
Supercommunicators: How to Unlock the Secret Language of Connection
by Charles Duhigg -
Man's Search for Meaning
by Viktor Frankl -
Happiness: Lessons from a New Science
by Richard Layard -
The No Asshole Rule
by Robert I Sutton
