Gideon Bible - helping some, but I would change the book...

I am just going to free form this one. Just in the last 24 months I gots a better grasp on things, from things I have read. It could easily fit inside one book. I think it would help a different sort of person than the ones who may find comfort in a Gideon Bible. If you collected the prescriptions and techniques of morality and virtue and ethics from these fine Greeks and Romans...

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cynic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stoicism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epicureanism ... if you collected their ethics and life philosophy, you would really have something. Forget their crazy science and cosmology - all stupid. Get a recent book - scholarship on these fine fellows only really began in earnest in the 1970s. ... and Plato and Aristotle can go stick it. Forget those two gas bags and everything they blubbered about. Socrates, alone, is of limited value as well - read what the Cynics, Stoics, Epicureans developed based on his example, because that is more comprehensive and usable. Besides, we don't have access to Socrates, we only have Plato's Socrates.

Cover via Amazon

You could do worse than start with: A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy By William Braxton Irvine Read Larry Winget: you can do worse than start with "It's Called Work For A Reason" Here is a book free on Google Books Self-help: with illustrations of character and conduct By Samuel Smiles, [ http://books.google.com/books?id=hSwCAAAAQAAJ ], there is a nice write up by Charles Petzold [ http://www.charlespetzold.com/blog/2009/09/1859-Books-Samuel-Smiles-Self-Help.html ]. Dale Carnegie's _How to Win Friends and Influence People_ . Why not? Why make yourself miserable in human relations by not using these effective techniques? The Buddha had some solid info on eliminating human suffering. In huge block letters I would put on the first page:

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(1) NOBODY IS COMING TO RESCUE YOU! (2) NO INSPIRATIONAL MOMENT IS COMING TO BRING CLARITY. (3) YOUR BEST TOMORROW LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE TODAY, EXCEPT WITH A LITTLE MORE WORK AND A LITTLE LESS SELF-PUNISHMENT. (4) YOU WILL PROBABLY BE ALIVE 15 YEARS FROM NOW. YOUR BEST TODAY IS PAYING FORWARD FOR YOUR FUTURE 15 YEAR SELF. That is enough of this foolishness. Anyway, I have to scrounge up a few bucks to match the 1.5 billion Gideon's Bibles that are out there, for my book. Coming to a hotel nightstand drawer near you.