The Meditations

The Meditations is a collection of twelve notebooks of thoughts written by Marcus Aurelius over a nineteen-year period. It is the diary of a Roman Emperor, written in the form of a series of ‘notes to self’.

Primarily inspired by Stoicism, but also by the writings of other prominent Greek and Roman philosophers, Marcus formulated a series of psychological techniques to be used for living a good and fulfilling life.

These notes were never meant to be published, but were created purely as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. Written nearly 2,000 years ago, the ideas presented in the Meditations are still relevant today, and this new translation into modern English makes them even more accessible to the contemporary reader.

Marcus Aurelius covers a number of themes in the Meditations, and these are repeated often as he reminds himself of important ideas, and refines how he expresses those ideas in his notes. Included in this book is a unique summary listing eighty-six of those ideas in order of how often they occur, from the most frequent to the least, along with the reference numbers of the passages in which they are mentioned.

Features of this edition include:

A new, more accessible translation into modern English.
A unique summary listing eighty-six of the main ideas.
An insightful introduction to the life of Marcus Aurelius.
The history of the Meditations - how they survived almost 2,000 years.