Texts from the Dead
A text a day from history's greatest minds
Every morning at 8:00, one line from Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Confucius, Nietzsche or another great mind, sent to your phone.
Start free for 7 daysCancel any time.
8:00
"Life is long enough, if you know how to use it."
- Seneca
What you get
One quote each morning
A sentence or two, and who said it. Nothing else.
Monday 8:00
"Do not act as if thou wert going to live ten thousand years."
- Marcus Aurelius Tuesday 8:00
"The unexamined life is not worth living."
- Plato Wednesday 8:00
"Our life is frittered away by detail."
- Thoreau
How it works
Three steps, then every morning
- 1
Start your free week
Choose monthly or annual and add your mobile number. Nothing is charged for 7 days.
- 2
One text at 8am
Each morning at 8:00 your time, one short quote and who said it. Never more than one a day.
- 3
Cancel any time
Online, in a minute, from the link in any text. Cancel in the free week and you pay nothing.
Pricing
One plan, two ways to pay
Questions
Good to know
What do you send?
One text a day: a quote of a sentence or two, and the name of who said it. The Stoics (Marcus Aurelius, Seneca, Epictetus), Plato, Confucius, Lao Tzu, the Buddha, Montaigne, Pascal, Spinoza, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Emerson and Thoreau. On the day you sign up, a welcome text brings your first quote straight away.
When does it arrive?
At 8:00 in the morning, your time. We take your time zone from your browser when you sign up. If it doesn't match your phone number's country, we use that country's latest time zone, so the text never comes before 8:00.
Which countries can I sign up from?
Mobile numbers in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. You pay in your own currency.
How does the free trial work?
The first 7 days are free on either plan. We ask for a card at the start, and Stripe, our payment provider, emails you before the first payment. Cancel before the trial ends and you pay nothing. Each phone number gets one free trial.
How do I cancel?
Go to Manage subscription, enter the email you signed up with, and cancel in a couple of clicks. Every text also has a link to stop. If you cancel after paying, the texts carry on until the end of the period you've paid for. In the US and Canada you can also reply STOP, which ends your subscription straight away.
Where do the quotes come from?
From the books themselves. Every quote is copied word for word from a public-domain translation, or from the original English, and checked against the edition it came from. We never reword a line, so the older translations keep their "thou" and "thy". Our Sources page lists every quote we've sent, with its work, passage, translator and edition.
Sign up
Start your free week
7 days free, then your plan renews until you cancel.