1. Struggling with anger management?
Read Seneca's On Anger.
Seneca knew what it was like to work for insane bosses in a high-stress environment (looking at you, Nero).
Keeping his cool meant preserving his life.
2. Want to be a better leader?
Read Plutarch's Parallel Lives.
Plutarch presents both positive and negative examples of great Greek and Roman leaders, with practical lessons.
Learn from the triumphs and failures of Caesar and Cicero, Pericles and Pyrrhus, Solon and Sulla.
3. Feeling trapped?
Read Epictetus's Enchiridion.
This is the stoic guide to letting go of everything you can't control and finding freedom in mastering the things you can.
It inspired Marcus Aurelius, and it can inspire you, too.
4. Need some fatherly advice?
Read the Earl of Chesterfield's Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World.
This 18th-century statesman knew the ways of the world -- manners, etiquette, diplomacy -- and wrote it all down for his son.
Learn from a master.
5. Struggling to find meaning?
Read the Book of Ecclesiastes.
Its opening, "Vanity of vanities! All is vanity!" is the cry of everyone who feels like their work is meaningless.
Its answer, to find meaning in fulfilling your duty to your Creator, still rings true.
6. Want to be a better friend?
Read Cicero's On Friendship.
Cicero's guide to finding and keeping friends.
He recognized that having a "true friend" is like having a second self, someone who feels your pains and joys as if they were her own.
7. Struggling to find balance?
Read the Tao Te Ching.
Laozi's classic work preaches the importance of using your intuition to discern how to live a life in harmony with the laws of nature.
C.S. Lewis's Abolition of Man (another great book) presents his own spin on this.
8. Want to understand people better?
Read Michel de Montaigne's Essays.
It's a wide-ranging inquiry into human nature, its great variety and volatility.
But above all, Montaigne grasps the limits of what we can know and how those limits make us human.
9. Struggling to maintain focus?
Read John Cassian’s Collationes.
Written in the 5th century, Cassian interviewed dozens of monks and scribes.
He marveled at their relentless focus and shared their secrets for withstanding distraction and temptation.
10. Feel the world's against you?
Read Boethius's Consolation of Philosophy.
Unjustly imprisoned, Boethius was forced to confront hard questions:
Why do bad things happen? How do we cope when they do?
His answer? Fortune is fickle, but we can find strength & happiness within.
11. Struggling with Managing Money?
Read Ben Franklin's Way to Wealth
This collection of mindset-maximizing maxims will motivate you to buckle down and be your hardest-working, most frugal self.
12. Dreading growing older?
Read Cicero's On Old Age
In our sick culture that worships youth, Cicero's treatise on the virtues and joys that come with age is a much-needed antidote.
13. Want to learn how to win?
Read Miyamoto Musashi's The Book of Five Rings.
This 17th-century samurai knew that in facing any challenge, it all starts with your mindset.
14. Struggling with time management?
Read Seneca's On The Shortness of Life.
Seneca issues a clarion call reminder that time is our most precious resource.
However short your life ends up being, it's long enough, so long as you focus on the things that really matter.
15. Want to live your best life?
Read Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics.
It's a handbook on human flourishing.
Right thinking leads to right actions; and acting well leads to living well.
I know this list barely scratches the surface -- there's so many amazing works that I left out.
What would you add? Let me know.
And if you found value in this, please share it with your friends, so they can too