Between 62 and 64 CE, the Roman statesman and philosopher Seneca wrote 124 letters to his friend Lucilius.

They were musings and philosophical reflections on how to live a meaningful life. This edition features the 12 most impactful and widely referenced letters, each addressing a timeless theme: time, friendship, fear, integrity, discipline, joy, wisdom, ethics, mortality, and more.

Seneca's writing is readable, practical, and accessible, making these ancient insights feel surprisingly modern. Stylishly designed and boldly illustrated, this pocket edition is perfect for aspiring Stoics or anyone seeking timeless wisdom on how to live well.

Scroll down to see some of the art and ideas from the book.

Human beings feel the pain of loss roughly twice as acutely as the joy of gains. Find $100, you're up 1 happiness point. Lose the same $100 and you're down 2 happiness points, even though you're in the same absolute position. It's called loss aversion, and it makes sense evolutionarily because it spurs us to strive for more, which helps the prepared survive.

But what happens when we're surrounded by prosperity and abundance we weren't wired for? We adapt. Fast. There's a term for this: hedonic adaptation. We get used to the good stuff quick, and our baseline for "acceptable" keeps rising.

The Stoics understood this, and in some ways it's their starting point. Expect nothing and you will be content. From our modern perspective this seems extreme, but we can experiment with lowering expectations to the point where we accept that some discomfort is inevitable. Suffering is an inescapable feature of life. In the face of it, the only wise choice is to endure it. And with some courage, hopefully we can endure it together.

For this illustration I wanted a subject that captures the idea of enduring through acceptance and mutual support. Emperor penguins came to mind, huddled together and enduring the winter as if they were a part of the rugged landscape.

I recently noticed something about bad days. If you check all of the items off your to-do list, it makes no difference whether you did so miserably or with equanimity. The report was written, the project was completed, the dishes were done, the mail was dropped off, the trash was taken out. And the things don't care whether you suffered to do them, or delighted in doing them. The modern version of this is the saying "Pain is inevitable, but suffering is a choice." 

Without getting too self-helpish, I do believe that this is an excellent example of the kind of actionable wisdom that Seneca and Stoicism in general offer. It pairs perfectly with last week's insight, that the present is really all we have, and how we can completely miss it by engaging in unnecessary suffering, rumination or anxiousness. 

For this illustration I chose a Parisian street as the backdrop, a sunset reflected in the Hausmann windows. A shadow is cast on the memory, transforming the scene into a rainy night, the crown of the man's head making a second dark sun. Seneca encourages us to accept the difficulties of life with equanimity, and to reject the temptation to dwell on what we can't control. And my day was more pleasurable for having read him.