Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library Classics)

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I never in a million years would believe that I have something in common with the most powerful person who lived two thousand years ago. In fresh and unencumbered English, Hays vividly conveys the spareness and compression of the original Greek text.

It is just a different reading experience, one that I (a new, naïve reader) was neither expecting nor wanting. To that end, Aurelius crafted his worldview based on philosophies which were already then hundreds of years old. But, it has helped me to recognize that these negative thoughts are affecting me because I'm allowing them to. His ability to get along with everyone: sharing his company was the highest of compliments, and the opportunity an honor for those around him. 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.

Now, going forward, the words of Marcus Aurelius will be forever in my mind, guiding me and showing me that there is a better path. No logro entender como es que un emperador se posiciona como uno de los más importantes filósofos de todos los tiempos. Very useful introduction by the translator Gregory Hays sets the stage for understanding Aurelius's influences and his contemporary reality as the last of the Roman Emperors of the "Pax Romana" era. The thing you have to understand is that this book is a series of entries some guy made of his, sometimes completely random, thoughts. The robe from his farm at Lorium, most of the things at Lanuvium, the way he accepted the customs agent's apology at Tusculum, etc.

In urging himself not to fear death, Marcus makes use of several arguments found in other ancient thinkers: that others have faced extinction with courage, that death is a natural process, that non-existence did not harm us before our birth and can't harm us after it, that death is unavoidable in any case. And if you are interested in Stoicism, then you should also take a look at some other books that explore Stoicism, Buddhism, happiness and enjoying life. And if not, work out what your own nature requires, and aim at that, even if it brings you no glory. And the last theme I noticed (not sure if it's part of Stoicism per se) was Marcus Aurelius's constant acknowledgement of the transient nature of things — even life itself.

Not prone to go off on tangents, or pulled in all directions, but sticking with the same old places and the same old things.

I picked up both Meditations: A New Translation by Marcus Aurelius and translated by Gregory Hays and On the Shortness of Life by Seneca. With bite-size insights and advice on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity and interacting with others, Meditations has become required reading not only for statesmen and philosophers alike, but also for generations of readers who responded to the straightforward intimacy of his style.With the result that he hardly ever needed medical attention, or drugs or any sort of salve or ointment. No bathing at strange hours, no self-indulgent building projects, no concern for food, or the cut and color of his clothes, or having attractive slaves. To recognize the malice, cunning and hypocrisy that power produces, and the peculiar ruthlessness often shown by people from "good families. A student of philosophy from his earliest youth, he was especially influenced by the first-century Stoic thinker Epictetus.