Yes, for the right reader: Kirkus emphasizes its warmth, candor, and accessibility, and its combination of canonical names, popular sages, self-deprecation, and late-life perspective is its real strength — it offers company rather than commandments. It is less suited to anyone wanting a sustained argument or practical program, since the miscellany form is episodic by design and depth varies entry by entry. Readers drawn by the mention of Singer or Parfit should also know Klein openly doubts that abstract moral philosophy is relevant to everyday life.

Daniel Klein

Reviewed

September 14, 2026

Read Time

8 min read

Age & reading levelAdult

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4.6 · 885 Amazon ratings

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Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It

Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It by Daniel Klein Review: A Warm Philosophical Miscellany

by Daniel Klein

Daniel Klein’s Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It revisits the “Pithies” quotations he collected as a young philosophy student, now annotated from his eighth decade. Its draw is range—Epicurus to Camus, Niebuhr to Woody Allen—paired with candid, comic reflections rather than a system.

$13.99 on Amazon

Adultcandid discussion of depression and meaninglessness

LuvemBooks Verdict

Best for

Reflective readers—especially those in or approaching later life—who want a browsable commonplace book of great-philosopher quotations annotated with jokes, doubts, and hard-won candor rather than a systematic answer to life's biggest question.

Worth it if

Worth it if you'd value a compact companion of quotations—Epicurus to Woody Allen, Camus to Parfit—to dip into and argue with, where meaning is assembled in fragments and re-read through the lens of a long life honestly described.

Skip if

Skip it if you want a sustained argument, a practical program for living, or analytic moral philosophy rigorously defended—Klein openly treats abstract ethics as largely irrelevant to everyday life, and the episodic miscellany form never builds beyond entry-by-entry depth.

What readers & critics say

Kirkus Reviews praised it as "a warm, winsome book of eclectic musings" and "a miscellany of concise advice about life," while Library Journal highlighted its "charm and wisdom" and The Berkshire Edge credited its "judicious bits of humor" deployed on life's biggest questions; reader response on The StoryGraph is more divided, with some finding Klein's takes unconvincing and the book a chore to finish.

“A glossary explains the relatively few philosophical terms Klein sprinkles in this warm, winsome book of eclectic musings... a miscellany of concise advice about life.”

— Kirkus Reviews

Sources: Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal, The Berkshire Edge, The StoryGraph

4.6from 885 Amazon ratings— reader ratings, not a LuvemBooks score

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Daniel Klein's Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It revisits the "Pithies" — quotations he collected as a young philosophy student — annotating them from his eighth decade, pairing Epicurus, Hume, Mill, Camus, and Niebuhr with Woody Allen, Walker Percy, and Derek Parfit. LuvemBooks' verdict: this is a warm, comic commonplace book built for browsing, ideal for readers who want company rather than commandments. The caveat is structural: as a miscellany of aphorisms and reflections it is episodic by design, and Klein's open skepticism toward abstract moral philosophy means readers seeking a rigorous ethics or a practical program should look elsewhere.

Is it worth reading?: Yes, for the right reader: Kirkus emphasizes its warmth, candor, and accessibility, and its combination of canonical names, popular sages, self-deprecation, and late-life perspective is its real strength — it offers company rather than commandments. It is less suited to anyone wanting a sustained argument or practical program, since the miscellany form is episodic by design and depth varies entry by entry. Readers drawn by the mention of Singer or Parfit should also know Klein openly doubts that abstract moral philosophy is relevant to everyday life.
Similar books: Readers who enjoy this blend of philosophy and consolation have several natural companions. Alain de Botton's The Consolations of Philosophy likewise applies great thinkers to everyday troubles, while Viktor E. Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning offers a graver, firsthand account of the same question Klein circles. Massimo Pigliucci's How to Be a Stoic supplies the practical program this book deliberately avoids, and Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World is the classic narrative introduction to the canon. Klein's own earlier books — Travels with Epicurus and Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar — share the same jokester-philosopher voice, though they sit outside our catalogue.
Who should read this?: It suits adult readers who like philosophy delivered with entertainment — fans of Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar and Travels with Epicurus will recognize the franchise's promise. It also works for newcomers, since the structure lowers the barrier to entry: a reader can meet Hume or Mill in a few lines and move on without mastering a system, and a glossary covers the few philosophical terms. Readers expecting ethics rigorously defended, or a treatise rather than a miscellany, are the ones likely to be disappointed.
What are the main themes?: The spine is the changing meaning of life itself: a line that looked definitive at twenty can look evasive at seventy, and the book treats quotation as a tool for living and re-living rather than a fixed doctrine. Running alongside that are mortality and aging (the eighth-decade vantage point), candor about depression and meaninglessness, and a skepticism toward abstract moral philosophy that Klein states openly. Comedy is a theme in its own right — a comic aside, the book suggests, can land harder than a formal proof.
How does it compare to Travels with Epicurus?: It comes from the same author and keeps the same voice — enlightenment delivered with entertainment — but the premise is broader. Where Travels with Epicurus builds a sustained meditation on aging around one philosopher, this book ranges across the whole "Pithies" notebook, from Epicurus and Emerson to Camus, Niebuhr, and Woody Allen. Readers who liked the earlier book's late-life perspective will find it deepened here, at the cost of that book's tighter focus.
How long is it, and which edition?: The edition under review is the 2017 Penguin Books reprint, which the back cover notes adds an afterword for that edition. The book itself is compact — short aphorism-plus-annotation entries totaling roughly 200-odd pages — and it is designed to be dipped into rather than read straight through as a course.

Summarize this book

Is it worth reading?

Who should read this?

What are the main themes?

How does it compare to Travels with Epicurus?

How long is it, and which edition?

Summarize this book

The book returns to the notebook of quotations — the "Pithies" — that Klein kept as a young philosophy student, now annotated from his eighth decade. Each entry pairs an aphorism from figures ranging from Epicurus, Hume, Mill, William James, and Camus to Woody Allen, Walker Percy, David Pearce, and Derek Parfit with candid, often comic reflection on how the line reads differently at seventy than at twenty. The result is a miscellany of concise advice about life: cumulative and fragmentary rather than a sustained argument, with depression, meaninglessness, and an enduring conviction that life is worth living threading through the asides.

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Our Review

We review the evidence: published critics, reader verdicts and BookTube reviews, gathered and weighed with AI assistance and edited by LuvemBooks, rather than one reader's first-hand take.

A late-life commonplace book with jokes, doubts, and a genuinely wide reading list, this is popular philosophy built for browsing rather than a blueprint to be followed; the assessment here is editorial and source-based, not a road test of the advice.

What the book actually is

Daniel Klein’s premise is compact and concrete: as a young philosophy student he kept a notebook of short quotations he called “Pithies,” hoping the great thinkers might tell him how to live. Decades later, from what the publisher describes as the vantage point of his eighth decade, he returns to those entries and adds new ones, pairing each extract with a brief personal reflection.

The title comes from Reinhold Niebuhr, whose words also set the tone: the meaning of life is not a solved problem but a moving target.

The result sits closer to a miscellany than to a treatise. Reviewers describe it as a "miscellany of concise advice about life," and that is the right category: aphorism, annotation, memoir-ish aside, repeat.

The 2017 Penguin Books reprint is the edition under review, with the book’s own back-cover copy noting an afterword added for that edition. It is explicitly the work of the author of Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar and Travels with Epicurus, and it keeps that franchise’s promise of enlightenment delivered with entertainment.

Its range is the point

The strongest verified fact about the book is the breadth of its sources. Kirkus lists Pascal and Epicurus, David Hume and John Stuart Mill, William James and Albert Camus among the canonical inspirations, then notes that Klein also takes wisdom from Woody Allen, John Barth, and Walker Percy, as well as contemporary figures such as David Pearce and Derek Parfit.

That mixture matters: the book is not organized as a history of philosophy, and it does not ask readers to choose a school.

Instead, it treats quotation as a tool for living and re-living. A line that looked definitive at twenty can look evasive at seventy; a comic aside can land harder than a formal proof.

The publisher’s synopsis emphasizes exactly this span, from Epicurus to Emerson and Camus to Niebuhr, and frames Klein’s role as a “jokester-philosopher” annotating each extract. The design is therefore cumulative rather than argumentative: meaning is assembled in fragments, then revised when experience changes the lighting.

What it does well, according to the record

Published reception supports the book’s charm more than its rigor. Reviewers call it a "warm, winsome book of eclectic musings" and note a glossary for the relatively few philosophical terms Klein uses, which fits the book's accessible pitch.

The same review highlights candor rather than sage-on-a-stage certainty: Klein cites Einstein on solitude and Emerson on old friends, admits that Peter Singer makes him feel “bad about not being good,” and discusses past depression and periods when he felt overwhelmed by meaninglessness while still holding that life is worth living.

That combination—canonical names, popular sages, self-deprecation, and late-life perspective—is the book’s real strength. It offers company rather than commandments.

The structure also lowers the barrier to entry: a reader can meet Hume or Mill in a few lines, then move on without needing to master a system first. For a book about the largest possible question, its scale is deliberately small, and that restraint is part of the appeal.

Where it can frustrate

The same fragmentary design limits it. Readers looking for a sustained argument, a defended ethical position, or a practical program will find a chain of reflections instead.

This is not a flaw discovered in use; it is the announced form, and taste will decide whether the form feels companionable or thin. A book built from “concise philosophical precepts” can sparkle in short stretches and still leave the big question untouched by design.

Klein’s own stance toward moral philosophy may also divide readers. As quoted by Kirkus, he writes that moral philosophy, “with its abstract arguments about the principles of right and wrong, is not really that relevant to our lives,” while allowing that it “may only be a luxury for those of us who do not need to struggle simply to stay alive.”

That is bracing and honest, but readers who come for ethics as a discipline—especially those drawn by the mention of Singer or Parfit—should not expect the book to meet analytic moral philosophy on its own terms.

Who it is for now

This is for readers who like philosophy best when it is portable, personal, and willing to laugh at itself: fans of Klein’s earlier books, browsers of quotations, and anyone more interested in how a life reads back over its old certainties than in winning a seminar. It is less suited to readers who want a systematic course, a workbook, or a definitive answer promised by the title’s comic setup.

The book’s value is object-like in that sense: a small compendium to dip into, argue with, and shelve beside other consolation-adjacent reads. Its authority comes from the record around it—an author known for making philosophy convivial, a Kirkus notice stressing warmth and candor, and a table of intellectual companions that runs from Epicurus to Woody Allen—rather than from any claim that the meaning of life has finally stopped changing.

Sources & Further Reading

The key facts and claims in this review are grounded in the retrieved, verified sources listed below.

Cited in this review
1
Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live by DANIEL KLEIN - Book: 9780143129592 | Rizzoli
rizzolibookstore.com
2
Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How To Live | Library Journal
libraryjournal.com
3
EVERY TIME I FIND THE MEANING OF LIFE, THEY CHANGE IT | Kirkus Reviews
kirkusreviews.com
Further reading
4
Every time I find the meaning of life, they change it : wisdom of the great philosophers on how to live : Klein, Daniel M., 1939- author : Free Downlo
archive.org
5
Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It : Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live used book by Daniel Klein: 9780143126799
betterworldbooks.com
6
Reviews - Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live | The StoryGraph
app.thestorygraph.com
7
BOOK REVIEW: A sagacious guide to the meaning of life - The Berkshire Edge
theberkshireedge.com
8
Every Time I Find the Meaning of Life, They Change It: Wisdom of the Great Philosophers on How to Live - Klein, Daniel: 9781780747859 - AbeBooks
abebooks.com

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candid discussion of depression and meaninglessness

Skip if you want a sustained philosophical argument, a practical program for living, or ethics rigorously defended on analytic terms.

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Travels with Epicurus

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Klein's other late-life philosophy book: he decamps to a Greek island to ask what a good old age looks like, with Epicurus as guide.

Written after the same author's reflection on his old notebook of quotations, this book sends Klein to the island of Hydra to think through how to age well rather than merely get old. It keeps the same blend of jokes, self-deprecation, and genuine engagement with ancient thinkers, but narrows the focus from dozens of philosophers to one big question. Best for readers who wanted more of Klein's own voice and a single sustained thread to follow.

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Klein's comic side at full strength: the history of philosophy explained through actual jokes, one gag per big idea.

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The meaning-of-life question answered from a concentration camp: one thinker's lived argument that meaning survives any circumstance.

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One ancient school treated as a working toolkit for modern decisions, written by a practicing philosopher with Klein-like wit.

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Sophie's World

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If the loose scrapbook format felt shapeless, this wraps the whole history of philosophy inside an actual novel with a mystery plot.