Overcome Anxiety, Suffering and Live Harmoniously With Help From Storytellers And Great Thinkers

Life Wisdom From Children's Authors and Other Minds Long Past

Jim Farina
5 min readApr 23, 2024

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Photo by Denisse Leon on Unsplash

A few years ago, beloved children's book author, designer, and illustrator Eric Carle died at the age of 91. His 1969 picture book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has been translated into over 66 languages and sold over 50 million copies. I read that book to my kids countless times.

I’m 66 now, and still recall we had a big, colorful book around the house when I was a kid. It was Aesop's Fables. My dad often referred to those stories to better illustrate valuable life lessons for my brothers and me. Those fables did help communicate some good, moral, and ethical models for living. And it's easy for kids to relate to these stories as many are told through animals and nature.

I still remember many popular ones — you might recognize some of them yourself. Everyone knows The Tortoise and the Hare. I also recall The Fox and the Grapes, The Boy Who Cried Wolf, The Ant, and the Grasshopper.

Aesop was a Greek storyteller who died in 564 BCE. A great book aptly titled — Great Thinkers showcases many examples of minds at work and why their life lessons have endured for centuries and are still relevant today.

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