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Wisdom of the Idiots
- Narrated by: David Ault
- Length: 3 hrs and 17 mins
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Wisdom of the Idiots
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5 out of 5 stars
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Here, in three definitive volumes, Shah takes us to the very heart of this mysterious mentor, the Mulla Nasrudin. They're comprised of skillful contemporary retellings of hundreds of collected stories and sayings bringing the unmistakable wisdom, wit, and charm of the timeless jokester to life.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Would be much better without politics
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4 out of 5 stars
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1 out of 5 stars
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Publisher's summary
In Idries Shah's Wisdom of the Idiots, the "idiots" are Sufis, called this because their wisdom penetrates to a depth which renders it inaccessible to the merely intelligent or academically knowledgeable. The stories of the Sufis are tools prepared for a specific purpose. On this level the movements of the characters in a story portray psychological processes, and the story becomes a working blueprint of those processes. Wisdom of the Idiots has been awarded many prizes, including two gold medals, one for being "Best Book", in conjunction with UNESCO's World Book Year.
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- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 292
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 247
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 245
Isolated from society in a tenement basement in St. Petersburg, a malicious former civil servant vents his resentments. In the rambling notes that follow, we are exposed to the inner turmoil of the Underground Man, who represents the voice of his generation. An emotional, paranoid knot of contradictions, the spiteful narrator is also desperate to join a society he loathes, if only to prove his superiority to it.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing
- By Bryan on 02-19-19
By: Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and others
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Plato's Symposium
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: Ray Childs
- Length: 2 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 106
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 89
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 89
The dramatic nature of Plato's dialogues is delightfully evident in Symposium. The marriage between character and thought bursts forth as the guests gather at Agathon's house to celebrate the success of his first tragedy. With wit and insight, they all present their ideas about love - from Erixymachus' scientific naturalism to Aristophanes' comic fantasy. The unexpected arrival of Alcibiades breaks the spell cast by Diotima's ethereal climb up the staircase of love to beauty itself.
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5 out of 5 stars
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fantastic
- By Aleksander on 11-09-16
By: Plato
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Experiencing Spirituality
- Finding Meaning through Storytelling
- By: Ernest Kurtz, Katherine Ketcham
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt, Shannon Parks
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 27
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 25
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Story5 out of 5 stars 25
In Experiencing Spirituality, Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham take listeners on a journey through storytelling as a means of self-discovery. Recounting and interpreting great wisdom stories from all ages and all cultures, as well as telling many of their own, the authors shed light on such experiences as awe, wonder, humor, confusion, and forgiveness. In story after story, seekers look to those whose lives reveal a special quality - sometimes called spirituality - and ask the masters what they must do to attain that same quality.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Another winner!
- By Strawberrygirl2 on 01-11-15
By: Ernest Kurtz, and others
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Symposium
- By: Plato
- Narrated by: full cast
- Length: 2 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 432
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 343
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 342
The Greek word sumposion means a drinking party (a fact shamefully ignored by the organizers of modern symposia), and the party described in Plato's Symposium is one supposedly given in the year 416 BC by the playwright Agathon to celebrate his victory in the dramatic festival of the Lenaea. He has already given one party, the previous evening; this second party is for a select group of friends, and host and guests alike are feeling a little frail.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Greek Philosophy over a Good Wine
- By Cathy Dopp on 02-16-06
By: Plato
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The Kingdom
- By: Emmanuel Carrère, John Lambert - translator, Claire Bloom - director
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 16 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 62
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 52
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 50
Gripped by the tale of a Messiah whose blood we drink and body we eat, the genre-defying author Emmanuel Carrère revisits the story of the early Church in his latest work. With an idiosyncratic and at times iconoclastic take on the charms and foibles of the Church fathers, Carrère ferries listeners through his "doors" into the biblical narrative. Once inside, he follows the ragtag group of early Christians through the tumultuous days of the faith's founding.
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3 out of 5 stars
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The Gospel of Emmanuel
- By Mark on 12-31-17
By: Emmanuel Carrère, and others
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Hagakure
- The Book of the Samurai
- By: Yamamoto Tsunetomo, William Scott Wilson - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 5 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 1,393
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,203
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Story4 out of 5 stars 1,196
Living and dying with bravery and honor is at the heart of Hagakure, a series of texts written by an 18th-century samurai, Yamamoto Tsunetomo. It is a window into the samurai mind, illuminating the concept of bushido (the Way of the Warrior), which dictated how samurai were expected to behave, conduct themselves, live, and die.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great Way to Experience the Book Again
- By WildKarrde on 07-10-17
By: Yamamoto Tsunetomo, and others
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Lectures & Fragments
- By: Musonius Rufus
- Narrated by: Robin Homer
- Length: 2 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 33
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Story5 out of 5 stars 33
Gaius Musonius Rufus was a Roman Stoic philosopher of the first century AD. He has been referred to as the Roman Socrates and is also remembered for being the teacher of Epictetus. He taught philosophy in Rome during the reign of Nero and so was sent into exile in 65 AD, returning to Rome only under Galba. Twenty-one of his lectures survive together with a few fragmentary notes from others, all of which are contained in this narration.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Amazing timeless wisdom
- By Rosy on 08-16-22
By: Musonius Rufus
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I Am a Cat
- By: Soseki Natsume, Aiko Ito - translator, Graeme Wilson - translator
- Narrated by: David Shih
- Length: 21 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 126
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 107
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Story4 out of 5 stars 107
Soseki Natsume's comic masterpiece, I Am a Cat, satirizes the foolishness of upper-middle class Japanese society during the Meiji era. With acerbic wit and sardonic perspective, it follows the whimsical adventures of a world-weary stray kitten who comments on the follies and foibles of the people around him. A classic of Japanese literature, I Am a Cat is one of Soseki's best-known novels. Considered by many as the greatest writer in modern Japanese history, Soseki's I Am a Cat is a classic novel sure to be enjoyed for years to come.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Great performance!
- By mz on 04-03-20
By: Soseki Natsume, and others
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The Spiritual Teachings of Seneca
- Ancient Philosophy for Modern Wisdom
- By: Mark Forstater, Victoria Radin
- Narrated by: David Troughton, Louisa Millwood Haig
- Length: 1 hr and 36 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 95
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 71
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Story4 out of 5 stars 69
Seneca was dedicated to Stoicism, and in his essays and letters he explained the stoic position on many fundamental issues: pleasure and the problem of desire, happiness, and contentment; anger, fear, living in the present, how to think for yourself, anxiety and tranquillity, goodness, freedom, trusting the universe; courage, opportunity, cruelty and how to deal with it, friendship, love and trust, death and how to live, learning , chance and fate, time, aspirations, wisdom - and more.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Odd presentation style
- By Mark on 08-03-08
By: Mark Forstater, and others
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The Way of All Flesh
- By: Samuel Butler
- Narrated by: Frederick Davidson
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 175
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 111
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Story4 out of 5 stars 107
This brilliant satirical novel, tracing the life and loves of Ernest Pontifex, has continued in popularity since its original publication in 1903. Every generation finds in The Way of All Flesh a reaffirmation of youth's rightful struggle against the tyranny of harsh parents and its admirable will for freedom of personal expression.
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5 out of 5 stars
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classic satire- would make Jon Stewart laugh
- By Connie on 06-04-08
By: Samuel Butler
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A Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland
- By: Samuel Johnson, James Boswell
- Narrated by: Patrick Tull, Alexander Spencer
- Length: 4 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 86
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 56
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Story4 out of 5 stars 55
In 1773, 63-year-old literary giant Samuel Johnson joined James Boswell, a 32-year-old Scottish lawyer, on an historic horseback expedition across the Scottish Highlands to the Western Islands. The unlikely duo's travelogue records their fascinating conversations and encounters with great wit and incredible detail. Johnson, one of the 18th century's most celebrated writers, provided an elegant and stately account of everything from Loch Ness's medicinal waters to Scotland's puzzling lack of trees.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Tasty, but abridged
- By Tad Davis on 08-22-13
By: Samuel Johnson, and others
What listeners say about Wisdom of the Idiots
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Haresh Raichura
- 01-24-18
Great Experience
The book causes many paradigm shifts in mind. The teaching is through stories which one can relate to real world. Some of these stories have very deep meanings. Such works are true inheritance from those who thought well and lived well. This is my first book on Sufism. I felt as if I am introduced to treasures of human wisdom with its practical application. Reading this story and their analysis and meaning, causes instant paradigm shifts in minds which are ready and hungry for wisdom. The language is lucid. The listening is a profound pleasure. This is what I think. I also wish that prices are lower so that more and more human being can be benefited.
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