Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library Classics)

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He was no blind optimistic but his unwavering faith in humanity and the common good prevailed, never letting him quit nor despair. The way he could have one of his migraines and then go right back to what he was doing-fresh and at the top of his game.

This account of Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius is an insightful book on the ideas of righteous living and facing adversities. His ability to get along with everyone: sharing his company was the highest of compliments, and the opportunity an honor for those around him.His later reputation rests on his Meditations, written during his later years and never meant for formal publication Gregory Hays is assistant professor of classics at the University of Virginia.

Stoicism might not be for everyone, it assumes more free will then we might have, and it places responsibility on the individual to be comfortable with their own unhappiness, but there is enough in these writings by the emperor to connect to many human generations. Her reverence for the divine, her generosity, her inability not only to do wrong but even to conceive of doing it. It should be audible in your voice, visible in your eyes, like a lover who looks into your face and takes in the whole story at a glance. They saw him for what he was: a man tested by life, accomplished, unswayed by flattery, qualified to govern both himself and them.Consequently, the Meditations have become required reading for statesmen and philosophers alike, while generations of ordinary readers have responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style.