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Tao of Seneca – Free PDFs

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Tao of Seneca - Letters from a Stoic Master

My team and I have been working on this for more than six months, and it’s finally finished!  

The Tao of Seneca: Letters from a Stoic Master is a small thank-you gesture to all of you — three volumes of Stoic writing starring Seneca, complete with original illustrations, profiles of modern Stoic figures, interviews, original Japanese and Chinese calligraphy to match themes, and much more. It’s totally free and you can download the PDFs below. Sharing is encouraged. Kindle versions are coming shortly, but it’s easy to get the PDFs on your Kindle now (instructions below).

I hope you find Seneca’s wisdom as life-changing as I have. I also owe a very special thanks to my entire team and all of the contributors who took part in the project. Thank you!

Tao of Seneca: Volume 1

Tao of Seneca: Volume 2

Tao of Seneca: Volume 3

If interested, I also turned Seneca’s letters into an audiobook series (paid). I often listen to one letter (5-15 minutes each) while walking to coffee in the morning. You can find it here: The Tao of Seneca.

For Those Interested: How to Put a PDF on Your Kindle

Below is a breakdown (directly copied from Amazon with my comments in [brackets]) on how you can easily email a PDF document and upload to your Kindle.

  1. You and your approved contacts can send documents to your registered Kindle devices, free Kindle reading applications, and your Kindle Library in the Amazon Cloud by e-mailing them to your Send-to-Kindle e-mail address ([name]@kindle.com). Your Send-to-Kindle e-mail address is a unique e-mail address assigned to each of your Kindle devices and free Kindle reading applications upon registration.
  2. How to send a document to your Kindle:

To find your Send-to-Kindle e-mail address, visit the Manage your Devices page at Manage Your Kindle. [TIM: To skip to the part you need, go to the “Settings” tab and then scroll down to “Personal Document Settings.” That will be true if you click on any of the links in these instructions.]

Documents can only be sent to your Kindle devices or apps from e-mail accounts that you added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List. To add an e-mail account, visit the Personal Document Settings page.

To send a document to your Kindle device or app, simply attach it to an e-mail addressed to your Send-to-Kindle e-mail.

[TIM: Note that the above does NOT work for the Kindle app on Mac desktop. If you want to read a PDF in that app, go to “File” –> “Import PDF…” and you’re off to the races.]

 

The Tim Ferriss Show is one of the most popular podcasts in the world with more than 500 million downloads. It has been selected for "Best of Apple Podcasts" three times, it is often the #1 interview podcast across all of Apple Podcasts, and it's been ranked #1 out of 400,000+ podcasts on many occasions. To listen to any of the past episodes for free, check out this page.

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222 Replies to “Tao of Seneca – Free PDFs”

  1. Thanks Tim this is awesome! Thanks for getting me into Stoicism, its been a huge help to me and I’ll be sure to share, thanks for the amazing work you do!

    Reply

  4. I hope I’m able to buy this in book form! Thanks so much for helping me man up Tim, Meditations by Marcus Aurelius has been an amazing resources and I expect nothing less from the Tao of Seneca and TOT of has inspired me to be my authentic self

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    1. Agreed! Meditations is wonderful, primarily for its “no nonsense” approach to life. Marcus spends a lot of time–and it’s time well spent–telling you to “get over it.” Like I said, time well spent!

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    2. I really wish I could pick this up in a softcover. I enjoy the experience of reading deeper stuff so much more that way. Wouldn’t it simply be a matter of uploading the file to Createspace and let them do the fulfillment and everything?

      Reply

  11. My coming across Epictetus in a college Philosophy course was a turning point in my life. Book 1, Ch 6 “Of Providence” from the Discourses is my personal favorite reading and I have gifted The Enchideron many times.

    This was going to be my next reading material so thank you for being so timely. Thank you for putting in the resources to make this happen and mostly thank you for creating an access to the mastery of self.

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  16. Hi Tim, thanks for the downloads! I would love to see this in book form someday. Having read a few Stoic texts, I think “Letters From a Stoic” is the most accessible and easy to read. I wouldn’t describe “Meditations” as a difficult read, I just found the format of Seneca’s writing more appealing. Thanks again, keep doing what you are doing, you are an inspiration to a lot of people.

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  17. Nicely done Tim! Thank you again for providing us all with such great content in so many forms! Your books and podcasts have been truly inspirational for me and I’m sure countless others will agree that you have helped change their lives, just like you have done for mine! Cheers

    Reply

  18. Awesome sauce, Mr. Tim Ferriss. As always, every email I receive, every podcast I make the time for a listen — they all produce value with untold, innate results.

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      1. Agree the mobi version from Calibre is not coming fine.. Hi Tim great work you have done here.. Any chance of converting it to mobi at your end.. I am guessing you would be having some sort of master copy which will make conversion easier for you

  31. Thanks, Tim! This is awesome. Already own all your content and dig the freebies too. I appreciate what you do, it has certainly had a positive impact on my life and thus, for those around me (I hope!). Cheers.

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  39. Supremely surprised when opening today’s email. I love Seneca, Osho, and the other Stoics. Thanks for sharing the love with these 3 volumes of Seneca!

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  41. Just received my Tools of Titans book, WOW it is huge, definitely not a carry it around with you book =). Looking forward to reading it

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  44. Thanks very much for these wonderful books Tim. I have the first two volumes on audible, but I still like to be able to read them as well. You are awesome!

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  45. Thanks so much,Tim, for putting together this useful and valuable resource and for making it available free of charge!

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  46. This is great…thanks, Tim! I downloaded the “Send to Kindle” app, which makes it super easy to drop and drag documents

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  47. Thanks Tim, I was listening the ‘Tao of Seneca’ podcast of yours today and here comes the email in the evening 🙂

    I’ll be sure to share, thanks for the amazing work you do!

    Reply

  52. What a timely gift , almost like you knew it was my birthday. You put out almost too much amazing material to keep up with. Thanks for all of the great work that you do! I know your birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks as well and this one is a milestone. Happy early birthday I hope it is awesomenacious.

    Duane

    Reply

  53. This is amazing! Thank you for providing the world with such tremendous value! As some have mentioned, let us know when physical copies can be purchased.

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  54. Thanks so much Tim! I’m working my way through TOT and love your podcasts on stoicism and fear-setting. Looking forwarding to reading the Tao of Seneca. Thanks again!

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  57. What a generous gift! Thank you! And thank you for answering “how can I get this into my Kindle?” A wry smile traced my face as I scrolled down the blog post to see my question already answered (of course!).

    Reply

  58. This great! I especially appreciate all the additional content and perspective from modern ‘philosophers’.

    Thank you

    Nick

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  64. Awesome Tim, thanks for sharing. Excited to see the new content and read the classic letters.

    If you get around to it .epub versions would be fantastic too.

    Reply

  65. Awesome Tim, thanks for sharing. Excited to see the new content and read the classic letters.

    If you get around to it .epub versions would be fantastic too.

    Reply

  67. Thanks Tim!

    A great trick I use when sending PDFs to my kindle, is to put “Convert” in the subject line. This will convert the pdf to mobi format so you get some more reading benefits.

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  70. Adding instructions for folks so they can learn how do this via their Kindle? Yet another example of above and beyond. You’re a good egg.

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    1. Incidentally, I would be very interested to hear your opinions on Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s comments about Seneca and the “barbell strategy”. IMHO, Seneca does best at playing both sides of the philosophical field – on the one hand he was a politically active entrepeneur who really likes to party; on the other hand, he didn’t seem to give a lark’s tongue about any of it.

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  83. Tim – I can’t believe how much value you deliver to the world for free. Would buy your premium products in a heartbeat if I had the resources. Thanks for making the rest of us Tims look good!

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  86. Thanks for the share, Tim! 974 pages = EPIC! The cover art is gorgeous. While I’m here, I’ll take this opportunity to say, “thanks for the awesome podcast!”

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  91. Thank you, just in time…I wanted something on my phone to do during chemo next week. Eight hours of pumping chemical engineering into my system can make my mind monkey crazy. This will help me focus on something else.

    Reply

  95. Thanks SO MUCH for these!!  They’re beautifully done!  Salute!  LaKisha D. Jones, D.O. Division of Hospital Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic Instructor in Medicine, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine President, Premier Hospitalist Services

    Reply

  98. You’re a legend Mr Ferriss – great effort with this. Ta very much. Time you popped out to NZ (home of the America’s Cup) for a beer or two.

    Reply