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The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (Oxford World's Classics)

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As per the product description. Be careful with the version of the book you order. The edition published by General Books LLC is an OCR edition, with typos. As per the publishers website, there's absolutely NO editing done after this has been scanned in. The "Look Inside" view is of another publisher's book. General Books LLC has about half a million books available, all created by OCR scanning. Very poorly done and the prices does not reflect the very low quality.

Certainly Marcus Aurelius Antonius is one of the great philosophers. Known as a "stoic", it might be better to look at him as a rather common-sensical person who has thought long and hard about the world and humans' place in it. This is a good book for reading just before going to bed. The tone is peaceful, quiet and lends itself very well to contemplation. If you have not read any of his material, this book is a good place to start.

Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus ended his days in A.D. 180, defending the eastern margins of the Empire along the Danube, after a long, tumultuous and surprisingly thoughtful life. "The Meditations" are his personal musings on the meaning of life, kept in a private journal during his final campaign. The format is a series of thoughts and private discourses, captured as they occured to the author. The content is more questions than answers, but some very good questions are presented for consideration.

Marcus Aurelius was raised in the Stoic tradition then popular among the Roman elite, a tradition whose teachings about a simple, disciplined, humble life and acceptance of a higher God are said to have found a home in developed Christian thought. Another translator, Maxwell Staniforth, characterized Marcus Aurelius as "by nature a saint and a sage, by profession a ruler and a warrior." This Oxford World's Classics edition represents an updated translation, still a very worthwhile read all these many centuries later.