Publisher edition artwork
Meditations
Marcus Aurelius · First published 180
A Roman emperor's private notebook, never intended for you, which is exactly why it works.
Essential
Easy in parts, deceptively so · Short — around 180 pages
Why Read It?
Two thousand years on it remains the most practical book about managing your own reactions.
What It's About
Private notes on duty, mortality, anger and attention, written by the emperor Marcus Aurelius for his own use.
Why It Matters
It is the surviving heart of Stoic practice and the ancestor of nearly every modern book on composure, most of which are worse.
The Review
There is no argument in it and no audience. Marcus wrote these entries on campaign to steady himself, and they read like a man repeating instructions he keeps failing to follow — which is the most useful thing about them. The most powerful man alive complaining that he does not want to get out of bed is the finest opening in philosophy.
Do not read it straight through. Keep it by the bed and take a page at a time for years.
Best Read
A page a morning, indefinitely.
Three Things You'll Take From It
- 01
You control your judgement of an event, and almost nothing else about it.
- 02
Most offence taken is optional.
- 03
Do the work in front of you as though it were the last thing you will do.
Better Read or Heard?
Best in print — the fragmentary form does not suit listening.
If You Like This…
Letters from a Stoic — Seneca
Warmer, wittier, more worldly.
Find it on AmazonEssays — Michel de Montaigne
The Renaissance continuation.
Find it on Amazon
The Edition to Own
Gregory Hays' Modern Library translation for reading; the Penguin Clothbound or Everyman for the shelf. Avoid the free Victorian renderings.
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