The Socrates Express: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers

Each chapter describes a different philosopher, and is introduced by a particular train trip that the author recalls. This is philosophy as therapy and finding a meaning or purpose, and is cleverly presented. The first chapter, entitled "How to Get Out of Bed", discusses Marcus Aurelius, the second

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"How to Wonder" is about Socrates. My favorite chapter title is "How to Have No Regrets like Nietzsche". I was happy to find uncommon philosophers discussed, such as Gandhi, Simone Weill, and Sei Shonagon. I was motivated to read some of Simon Weill, Marcus Aurelius, and to purchase The World as Will and Representation to try again to understand Schopenhauer. I was amused by the discussion of the primitive conditions of "Stoic Camp" a program of the University of Wyoming, where the author and others read Epictetus' Handbook, discussing various points around a fireplace, during a snowstorm. I marked one quote, out of many that I should have, and I also want to remember the epigram of the book, by Maurice Riseling: "Sooner or later, life makes philosophers of us all"

"This brings us to another vaccine in the Stoic dispensary: premeditatio malorum, or "premeditation of adversity". Anticipate the arrows of Fortune, says Seneca. Imagine the worst scenarios and "rehearse them in your mind: exile, torture, war, shipwreck"

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