Play Audiobook Sample
Play Audiobook Sample
How to Have Willpower brings together two profound ancient meditations on how to overcome pressures that encourage us to act against our own best interests—Plutarch's essay On Dysopia or How to Resist Pressure and Prudentius's poetic allegory Psychomachia or How to Slay Your Demons. Challenging the idea that humans are helpless victims of vice, these works—introduced and presented in vivid, accessible new prose translations by Michael Fontaine—emphasize the power of personal choice and the possibility of personal growth, as they offer insights and practical advice about resisting temptation.
In the spirit of the best ancient self-help writing, Plutarch, a pagan Greek philosopher and historian, offers a set of practical recommendations and steps we can take to resist pressure and to stop saying "yes" against our better judgment. And in a delightfully different work, Prudentius, a Latin Christian poet, dramatizes the necessity to actively fight temptation through the story of an epic battle within the human soul between fierce warrior women representing our virtues and vices.
Plutarch and Prudentius insist that we allow pressure or temptations to get the best of us. But they also agree that we can do something about it. And their wisdom can help.
Download and start listening now!
Be the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Plutarch (c. AD 46–120) was a Greek historian, biographer, and essayist. For many years Plutarch served as one of the two priests at the temple of Apollo at Delphi. He actively participated in local affairs in the town of his birth, Chaeronea, in the Greek region known as Boeotia, and was also a magistrate, representing his home on various missions to foreign countries.
Roger Clark is a professional actor and voiceover artist who lives in New York City. He is best known for his award-winning portrayal of Arthur Morgan in the 2018 video game Red Dead Redemption 2. He has performed in over forty-five countries. His first venture in audio narration was as a child, helping his father record local newspapers for the blind and visually impaired.