Meditations

📖 The Scoop

This edition is an annotated edition by classical scholar Meric Casaubon that includes:

• Introduction to Marcus Aurelius
• Appendix
• Notes
• Glossary

Learn from the wisdom of Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius, philosopher and emperor of Rome (A.D. 161-180), wrote Meditations as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. The work is still actual today if you want to learn about stoicism and how to face the challenges of everyday life. While writing Meditations Marcus Aurelius faced the Antonine Plague that later killed him.

About Meditations

"Shit happens. The gods are unfathomable. No one's to blame. Marcus's line on this might seem to induce a certain passivity. But stoicism doesn't mean quiescence. "Do everything as if it were the last thing you were doing in your life," he advises - you can commit injustices by doing nothing. Above all, strive to make yourself a better person. Control your arrogance. Stop getting angry with stupid and unpleasant people. Be upright, modest, straightforward and cooperative."
- The Guardian

"The most important lesson to take away from Meditations is that our minds have great power. We can choose how we perceive events and we can always choose to be virtuous. If we practice, we can instantly erase any bad impressions from our mind. We are completely in control of our thoughts and actions. Remember the two quotes: "You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength." "The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.""
- The Daily Stoic

"(W)hat is so striking about the Meditations is the complete absence of anything like development. What we have here is not so much a great man's emerging philosophy as a continuing -- and, I suspect, doomed -- attempt to stave off depression, bad temper and existential despair."
- Joan Smith, The Independent

Genre: Philosophy / History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical (fancy, right?)