VIDEO TRANSCRIPT & BOOK PURCHASE LINKS  

1. Seneca – Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium

Number one, Seneca: Letters from a Stoic. These aren’t really in any order, but I think this probably has to be number one. The others, not so much. But I think this book is the most complete guide to life that I can think of. I’ve read this so many times that there’s other books where I find myself quoting the author a lot. Now I’m at the point where I don’t even find myself quoting Seneca anymore. I’ve just read this so many times that it’s become embedded in, like, not even the operating system, not even Windows 11. Like, it’s in the pre-boot sequence. 

And so, like, I can’t recommend this enough. I send copies of this to buddies all the time. This version is actually the wrong version, now that I think about it. Wrong translation. And they did my man dirty on the cover. Like, he’s definitely better looking dude than that. And so, like, this one’s translated by Robin Campbell. There’s another one. This isn’t the right one. This is the first one that I found on Amazon, but there’s another version I’ll put together a list and post it wherever I post this video. 

But I would definitely say everyone should have a copy of this or be familiar with it. And the only thing that I would add is that it’s funny. Like I want to say everyone should get a copy of this when they turn 21. But the tricky thing about life is that like at 21, I don’t know if I would have, if it would have stuck with me enough, I don’t know if it would have resonated. Like, 31, I don’t know if it would have resonated. I’m 38 now. I think a lot of it has finally sunk in. But what’s tricky with the really great books is that you have to have gone through enough life. You have to have experienced enough life, like the ups and the downs, I guess, in order to really appreciate what’s written here. So with that said, I would definitely… No hesitation recommending this to everyone.

Read Seneca here »

2. Blaise Pascal – Pensées

Number two, Pascal – Pensées. This one… So this is tricky, because this, for me, changed my worldview. What I recommend to everyone, I’m not sure. But I got to keep it real with the video. It’s not the 10 most highly recommended books that you Google, and that’s exactly what comes up. Because then who cares? There’s no point making a video. I’ll just send you a list of what consensus has to say. But this book in particular has made a huge impact on the way I think. The book overall is pretty spiritual, pretty religious. In its entirety. That’s not why I’m recommending it. I would say if you’re kind of going down that path to begin with, you’ll get extra out of it. 

But why I really recommend it is the second chapter and the third chapter. And so the first chapter, you kind of, you open it and you realize pretty quickly, like pense means thoughts. And so like, it’s kind of a difficult book to read, very scattered. Like I actually don’t know. I actually don’t know if he meant for this to be published. I could probably check that pretty quick. I probably should have known that, but yeah, You’re kind of reading it, you know, in the event that you buy this, you’ll be reading it, you’ll be like, the fuck, man, like, why did Greg recommend that I buy this book? This makes no sense. This was written in French over 400 years ago. About 400 years ago. But the second chapter is called The Misery of Man Without God. It’s actually not really about God, it’s about human nature. And especially, I remember the first half of the chapter, not really getting much out of it, but he starts getting into, like, I guess the truth of this world.

That’s kind of the best way I can put it. How man goes back and forth between pain and boredom. And how averse humans are to the truth. And kind of just all these really eye-opening examinations where you kind of just stop and go, fuck. He’s definitely a little bit of a pessimist. Definitely a pessimist, definitely a cynic to a large degree. But I think as you read it, you know, some of the most famous quotes, I think everyone’s familiar with the quote by him where he says, all of man’s misery stems from his inability to sit in a quiet room alone. Like, that’s a banger. Like, he has, that’s from the second chapter of this book. And so he has a whole lot of things like that in there where you just kind of sit there and you’re like, god damn, like, this man hit it on the head. Then the third chapter is probably the most famous thing that Pascal ever wrote. It’s Pascal’s Wager where he talks about the risk-reward of believing in God, whether to believe in God or not. And that too, I think some people are familiar with it, some aren’t.

But I would say those two chapters alone make this worth reading. The other chapters, if you get anything out of it, great. But did this book change my worldview? Absolutely. So it has to be in here.

Read Pascal here »

3. Plutarch – Moralia

Number three, Plutarch. This, once again, similar to Seneca, this is the wrong version, the wrong translation. The book is called Moralia, Plutarch Moralia. That’s the one, and this is kind of like, the problem with the Seneca translation and with this translation is Because they take, they try to modernize it too much. And it becomes like, I guess, more readable in English. But you’re reading it, if you’ve read multiple translations, you’re reading it and you’re like, bro, there’s no fucking way that’s what the guy was trying to say. Like, don’t be so flowery with the language. So again, I’ll post like the right version. I’m not going to steer you guys wrong with the translations. Like, I’ll get you whatever the kind of consensus version is. But this ain’t it. 

So Plutarch is mostly known, his main book is called Lives. Lives is like the great great Greeks, great Romans, and he does really good comparisons back and forth between pretty much every Greek and Roman hero, emperor, conqueror, tyrant that you can think of. Moralia is less known, and I actually found it through Montagna, who we’ll talk about in a bit, but he addresses a whole bunch of topics in Moralia, and an incredible stuff that I really haven’t even seen covered in more modern writings. I think one of the ones that stays with me as a topic is a chapter like, why is God so slow to punish man for his wrongdoings? And he goes into these really philosophical back and forths about whether it’s better for punishment to arrive immediately after the crime or whether there’s reasons why the gods, and he talks about the gods because it’s back in that era where there was an entire slew of gods, more of the pagan approach.

Like he has all these really, really good philosophical kind of debates back and forth where it opens your eyes. And he still talks about some of the legendary Greeks and Romans in here in a way that like opens your eyes. But I would say, especially he’s just an incredibly talented writer, but really, really good at using similes and metaphors to make his point in a way where it’s just like so simple that it sticks with you. So I would say he’s a really good writer too. Like Lives, I would recommend, but I’ll be honest, like Moralia is one that I find myself reading over and over and over. Lives is like entertaining. It’s definitely, it’s the book that you read about how, you know, Napoleon took it on his, on his journeys and like pretty much every great hero took it on their journeys. Assuming you think Napoleon’s a hero, not a criminal, which who knows. But Moralia is the one that I found myself going back to over and over. So highly recommended. Again, I’ll put the, I’ll put the link to the right one because this ain’t the right one.

Read Plutarch here »

4. James Allen – As a Man Thinketh

Number four, James Allen – As a Man Thinketh. This, I think, is kind of a non-consensus pick. First off, look how skinny this book is. I think it’s like 40 pages. But this book absolutely had a huge impact on the way that I think about the world. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. It was recommended to me by someone who I’m not, you know, a lot of times their book recommendations are a little shaky. And so it’s very hard against something that Montagna talks about, where he talks about how we allow ourselves to be prejudged. We allow things that are recommended to us to be prejudged by who they came from. And so I really try to stay away from that and just be cognizant of how my processing is, I guess, for lack of a better word. But this book, I read it once. I put it down. I was like, I don’t want to fuck this book. And then good books have a way of like two or three days later, when you’re just doing something completely random, pops back in your head.

Like, oh fuck, I’m thinking about that James Allen book. And I went back, I read it again, read it again, again, again, again. And really, um, it made its way into my mind. I think this was written in 1907. I think this gets like the, the do, the do that deserves as being like a classic book, but I’m not sure. Again, like all these books, I didn’t actually, didn’t even sit down and Google and be like, oh, how’s, how do people think of this one? Cause again, that ruins, I think that ruins kind of the, um, authenticity, I guess, of any book recommendation video. Like in the event that you write up a bunch of books you liked, or you do a video or some shit, like don’t, don’t check what everyone else thinks. I don’t care about that. I want to hear what you think. And cause then that’s, that’s how you have a real reason as to why this book meant so much to you as opposed to like, Oh, like it’s a classic. Everyone else likes it. Cause that’s not real. That doesn’t do anything for the listener. So this book, the main thing in here, the main message I think is your thoughts affect your, your thoughts become your habits and your habits become your reality. And like, once you kind of like, once you kind of, um, internalize that you realize how true it is. And really what happened is I ended up like keeping this on my nightstand, almost like a Bible for like months.

Cause what I would do is I’ll wake up and a lot of mornings I’d be like angry or, you know, down. You never feel good in the morning. You always have some kind of negative thought patterns going on. You think about all the shit you have to do that day. Whatever it is you’re going through, for some reason, in the event that you have tough mornings, like everyone has tough mornings, it’s another thing you learn from reading all these old books is that every language, whether it’s Latin, Greek, whatever, they all have some specific word for morning blues. If you wake up in the mornings, you’re not depressed. You’re just normal. If you stay down all day, maybe you’re depressed. I don’t I’m not the right guy to diagnose you with any of that. But anyway, so I’d kind of wake up and even when I had bad, bad negative thought patterns going on, I would read this. And even just that one little message, it would remind me of like, Hey man, like get your, get your thoughts under control. Cause you can, you can, um, a lot of the stoics would talk about like the weather, the weather of your mind. And so you kind of even, even just being cognizant, like what is the weather of my mind right now? Is it stormy? Is it sunny? Like, where am I at? And so then like, Being able to kind of, you know, I write about like stop losses a lot, right? Being able to kind of stop yourself out when you find yourself in like a negative or stormy thought pattern. Like, oh, fuck, like my thoughts are going to become my habits. My habits are going to become my circumstances. And so kind of just being able to re-engineer your mind, I guess, in a way where at least you’re trying to focus your thoughts towards like positive outcomes and like optimism and believing in the best in people and all of that.

And so that’s why this book meant so much to me. I would actually really recommend it. Even if you’re a fan of good writing, this is really poetry. This book is meant to be read by like poetry in a sense, because his writing is so that’s why it went over my head the first time. Cause I kind of, I think I read it like I would read like some stupid shit on Twitter and not really paying attention to like how beautiful the prose is. And so some of the other books, but I a hundred percent recommend them. I don’t know. This one I would. I think, like, it’s worth your time. I think what’ll happen to you is probably similar to what happened to me where you read it, and you’re like, eh, you know, fucking Greg recommended me this dogshit book. But then it comes back, man. Like, it’ll pop into your head, and you’ll be like, fuck. There’s a lot of other shit in here that’s really good, but I just wanted to convey a main message about your thoughts becoming your habits, your habits becoming your reality. So, James Allen, As a Man Thinketh. Great book.

Read Allen here »

5. Baltasar Gracián – The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Number five, Baltasar Gracian – The Art of Worldly Wisdom. This… It’s a dangerous fucking book, man. Really, really good book. I mean, maybe it should have been my second favorite of all time. Again, look how skinny this one is. Not much here. This is a book of maxims. This was written, let me see, probably 1637. So again, about 400 years ago. This is a book of, I forget how many maxims are in here. What makes this book amazing is like, I just want to say it’s a little bit Machiavellian. Which, like, if you don’t know anything about Machiavelli, you take that as being, like, oh, that’s evil, or, like, manipulative, or whatever. But it’s not, bro. It’s, like, a lot of the shit, or, like, La Rochefoucauld, like, a lot of these guys, once you read them, it has to do with, like, the darker side of humanity, of man. Like, of what lurks in us that we don’t really want to, um, that we don’t want to talk about. And so this, especially, this is a book for navigating the malice of men.

Like I would almost say like this book is game. This book, that’s why I say it’s dangerous. Cause like you gotta like, there’s shit in here about how to use your enemies to your advantage. That’s the kind of thing that like, or how to, how to use criticism in a way that, um, that makes you a better person, I guess. And so like, it’s almost like a book for like, I think it was a statesmanship, I guess, however you want to call it, but it’s an amazing, amazing book. I don’t know if there’s much more I can really say about it other than, kind of like the James Allen book. You don’t really have much to lose. It’s not that expensive. It’s not that big. You’ll read it, and I think you’ll recognize, oh shit, these Maxims, there’s a lot of power in here. Great book. It’s a weapon. Use it carefully. But then change the way I view the world, absolutely. I’ve gotten a lot of use out of this book.

Read Gracián here »

6. Lord Chesterfield – Letters to His Son

Number six, Lord Chesterfield’s Letters. This one, this is actually fairly recent, but as I was reading it, I was like, this is… You know, I wasn’t sure what to recommend. I wasn’t sure what to expect from it. Um, same thing. This was, this was written probably 300 years ago. It’s actually letters to his son. And what’s amazing. I just have to laugh at it is like, Lord Chesterfield, you know, it seems like great man. The advice in here is absolutely good. I think a lot of it kind of is what you, what you’d expect about how to like navigate your way through society. Um, how to behave as like a member of the, uh, upper, upper class, I suppose. But what’s amazing and you see this throughout history is that the son turned out to be like a nobody, like, and it kind of just shows you the futility of as much as, as much as man tries to sculpt his sons, sculpt his son to be in his image, it ends up being fruitless over and over. And like the one truth of, of history is that short sleeves are short sleeves in three generations. And so would I like give this to my son as a book and be like, here, make this into who you are? No.

I wouldn’t, because there’s some stuff in here that’s like a little dated. There’s stuff in here that’s like straight up misogynistic by today’s standards. And so, but I think to you, you know, assuming you’re like in your 30s or 40s or whatever, as you’re trying to think through your own worldview, your own morals, your own ethics, your own things that you would, you know, once you reach an age where you feel comfortable kind of providing advice to the next generation, I would definitely read this. It’s pretty long. Like it’s longer than it looks. A lot of it’s pretty thick. And what’s funny is he references a lot of these same old books. Like that’s how you know you’re on the right path with the books you’re reading. Because if you see like Chesterfield referencing Pascal and Pascal referencing Seneca, then you’re like, all right, like I found the chain of command. I found a train of thought for the great thinkers that keep referencing each other over and over. And as you get deeper and deeper into these older books, you’ll see that it’s the same titles that come up over and over. And you’ll realize that there’s really no point in reading anything new because everything new is just repeating what has been said, whether it’s intentional, whether it’s plagiarism, or whether they’re unaware that they’re saying something that was already said by Seneca, already said by Plutarch, already in the Bible. So I’m not really sure if I have anything more to say on this book, but I enjoyed it. It’s worth your time. Better than whatever else you’re reading right now.

Read Chesterfield here »

7. Michel de Montaigne – Essais

Number seven, Michel de Montaigne – Essays. This, I’m actually not sure how much I have to say that I didn’t really already say about Seneca. This is an amazing book. This was actually written in, I think the 1500s. As far as translation, this is the correct translations by someone named JM Cohen. Again, I’ll put up the right one, but the translation is very important here. So I think there’s three major translations of one by a guy named frame. I bring this up because I remember trying to read this a long time ago. I think most people know about the book, but I tried reading it a long time ago. I couldn’t get into it. I don’t think it was age related. I think it was, it’s a translation. This translation really stuck with me.

And I’ve gone back and tried to read the translation that I didn’t like before. And like, it would almost, I can see myself not finishing the book. That’s how important translation is. This one does a really good job straddling, you know, like on one hand, there’s, you want to, you want to have fidelity to what the author wrote. And on the other hand, you want to modernize it. And sometimes because the way people wrote in the 16th century can be difficult to read today. But this guy, this translation by J.M. Cohen, they nailed it. Like a lot of what, a lot of what is written here hits home in terms of what he writes about, kind of everything. Like he references Seneca and Plutarch all the time. Like I said, I think I got into Plutarch because of this book. And so, but he covers every topic, like, and he’s just all over the place. And he covers like education of our children, talks about cannibalism, like talks about the power of the imagination. But it’s really, I think what makes this book a classic, and this is definitely a classic, no matter who you ask, is the way he writes is so humble and self-effacing and he talks about himself with such candor, I guess is the way to say it, that you almost like fall in love with him in a sense. And you’re kind of just like, damn, this guy, this is my friend. You know, he’s giving me like straight up really good advice. So again, pretty thick book, but I’ve read this one so many times. That’s why it reminds me of Seneca where I find myself quoting him, but at the same time, a lot of it has just become indebted in my way of operating. So that’s how I know it’s a really great book. This I would wholeheartedly recommend. I probably should have made this number two or number three, but it is what it is.

Read Montaigne here »

8. Bertrand Russell – History of Western Philosophy

Number eight, Bertrand Russell – History of Western Philosophy. This is a thick fucking book, probably 800 pages. And before I get into anything philosophy related, like I have to make a disclaimer in a sense that there is, and I’m not, I’m not like a philosopher. I’d say I’ve been deep in it for about four years now. Um, and I feel like I’m just scratching the surface and it’s been like, I’ve been pretty, um, I don’t know about aggressive is the word, but like I’ve really, really put in the time and I’ve gotten really, it’s changed the way I view the world. That’s why, that’s why some of these are here.

But what I would say to you is that there is no little bit of philosophy. You can’t just read snippets or whatever and think that you’re going to understand how some of these great thinkers think. This book really is a compendium of all time, all the great philosophers, starting from the pre-Socratics, goes through Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, covers all the guys you’ve ever heard of from the modern era. What makes this a great book is that it’s Bertrand Russell’s tone. He’s a really, really good writer. He breaks these thinkers down and compares them to one another. I think he does it in about as simple language, about as simple as the language can possibly get. And I say that in the sense that, like, even as you’re reading this, and look, like I said, I’ve been reading this a long time. I’ve read this book probably three or four times. I still don’t get a lot of the shit in here. And, like, I’m not smart, but I’m not slow. Like, I should really be able to grasp what a lot of these guys are thinking, but especially a lot of the stuff with, like, metaphysics. We have all these different proofs of God, the cosmological proofs of God, the ontological proofs of God. A lot of this is really fucking tough stuff. And even for Russell, he gives his own opinion and he’s really blunt about it. Like he is kind of the OG, like, if you don’t get it, whatever. But he tries to make it as digestible as possible. And so this book is a classic, definitely worth your time. I don’t know how else to put it. And like, the main thing that comes out of it is just the overview of Western philosophy. And I think it prepares you to be able to read more of the primary texts. Like, if you read this and you read Plato after, it’s like night and day. You’ll understand a lot more of what he was thinking.

Read Russell here »

9. Arthur Schopenhauer – The World as Will and Representation

Next, by the same token, we have Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation. This is volume two. I have volume one on my bookshelf somewhere. Kind of a lot of the same stuff I said, like, applies for this one.

This is the book that got me into philosophy, which is why it’s on this list: Top 10 books that changed my worldview. And so I would absolutely recommend it if you’re willing to put in the time. But same thing, if you pick this up and it’s not what you expected, then sorry, I’m not sorry, I guess. This is an amazing, amazing book. Same thing, reminds me of Pascal a little bit. I think Pascal definitely influenced his thinking. He referenced the amount of references that this book has, like leads me to believe this man is nothing but a genius.

Like he goes back to Hinduism, Christianity, Judaism. He covers all the Greeks, all the Romans. He has this entire worldview that is so coherent, that you can’t help but appreciate what a polymath or what a thinker he is, because he goes into art, music, beauty, animals.

Um, and so I can say a lot more about this book, but I would kind of hesitantly recommend it. Again, this book is two volumes. This one’s 600 pages. The other one’s 600 pages. I’ve read it probably 10 times, but again, that’s what I mean by you have to put in the work with philosophy.

What I would say about philosophy, that’s tricky, is, you’re not just going to read this once and understand it. The way I put it is that there’s a lot of loop-de-loops. You’ll read this, 80% of it will go over your head. You’ll put it down, you’ll go read the Bertrand Russell book. It’ll start to make sense. You’ll go read some secondary material, meaning books about Schopenhauer written in the modern day. You’ll read something by Nietzsche, who basically was heavily influenced by Schopenhauer.

Then you start getting these alternate views on this man himself. Then you say, all right, I’m gonna go back and give it another shot. Go back and read it again. More shit starts to make sense. Now you understand 60% of it, instead of 20%. Not very good at math today, but that’s kind of what I mean: if you’re going to get into philosophy, it’s a long haul.

So, hesitantly recommend, but again, this book changed the way I view the world. That’s why it’s here.

Read Schopenhauer here »

10. Will Durant – The Story of Civilization (Series)

Last, I think we’ll do this: This is a history series. This is Will Durant, Story of Civilization. This is an 11-part series, and each book is 800 to 1,000 pages. You can get an entire set on websites like Thrift Books or eBay. I think I got 10 of them for like $60. You could probably buy the whole set for $100–$150 used.

Durant is just Will Durant and his wife, Ariel Durant. They spent their whole life doing these 11 books. It starts with, I think, Our Oriental Heritage. I have all of them sitting on my bookshelf over there. But it goes all the way from the ancient era. The final one is The Age of Napoleon, and then the series ends.

You don’t have to read them in order. I picked The Age of Voltaire, which is the first one I read. I don’t know if it’s the best one. Again, you can see debate online over which is the best in the entire series. But this one in particular is amazing. He does a really good job of weaving together history and philosophy. I guess in a sense, you start to realize history and philosophy are one and the same.

As you go through these, I think this is probably the seventh one of the series I read. I read 7, 8, 9, 10, 11. Then I read 1, 2. Now I’m on 3, which I think is called Caesar and Christ. I have to finish 4, 5, 6, and then I’ll be done. It’s taken me years, but it’s absolutely one of the best side quests I’ve ever gone on.

But this book in particular is almost like a biography of Voltaire. You also learn about him as a philosopher, his contemporaries, and everything that went on in the French Enlightenment, which was just an amazing period of history.

So Will Durant, Story of Civilization, I would 100% recommend.

And that is all we have for today. I hope this was helpful. I’m going to put a list up of all these books, like the correct translations, where you can get them.

Read Durant here »

Closing Thoughts

Happy reading. I hope this helped you all, and that you have a great day. Links to follow shortly on Facebook and on YouTube. 

Ciao!