Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
Meditations, Marcus Aurelius
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Meditations
A New Translation

Author: Marcus Aurelius, Gregory Hays

Narrator: Roger Davis, Ryan Holiday

Unabridged: 4 hr 47 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 07/11/2023


Synopsis

NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Timeless insights into what it takes to lead a meaningful life—still profoundly relevant nearly two thousand years later.

Now featuring a brand-new foreword from Ryan Holiday, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Obstacle Is the Way!

“Meditations offers a glimpse into [Marcus Aurelius’s] mind, his habits, and his approach to life. . . . I think any reader would find something useful to take away from it.”—James Clear, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Atomic Habits

“It is unbelievable to see how the emperor’s words have stood the test of time. . . . Read a page or two anytime you feel like the world is too much.”—Arnold Schwarzenegger, The Wall Street Journal

Your ability to control your thoughts—treat it with respect. It’s all that protects your mind from false perceptions—false to your nature, and that of all rational beings.

A series of spiritual exercises filled with wisdom, practical guidance, and profound understanding of human behavior, Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations remains one of the greatest works of spiritual and ethical reflection ever written. 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.

In Gregory Hays’s translation—the first in nearly four decades—Marcus’s thoughts speak with a new immediacy. In fresh and unencumbered English, Hays vividly conveys the spareness and compression of the original Greek text. Never before have Marcus’s insights been so directly and powerfully presented.

With an Introduction that outlines Marcus’s life and career, the essentials of Stoic doctrine, the style and construction of the Meditations, and the work’s ongoing influence, this edition makes it possible to fully rediscover the thoughts of one of the most enlightened and intelligent leaders of any era.

About The Author

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was born to an upper-class Roman family in A.D. 121 and was later adopted by the future emperor Antoninus Pius, whom he succeeded in 161. His reign was marked by a successful campaign against Parthia, but was overshadowed in later years by plague, an abortive revolt in the eastern provinces, and the deaths of friends and family, including his co-emperor Lucius Verus. A student of philosophy from his earliest youth, he was especially influenced by the first-century Stoic thinker Epictetus. His later reputation rests on his Meditations, written during his later years and never meant for formal publication. He died in 180, while campaigning against the barbarian tribes on Rome’s northern frontier. Gregory Hays is assistant professor of classics at the University of Virginia. He has published articles and reviews on various ancient writers and is currently completing a translation and critical study of the mythographer Fulgentius.


Reviews

Goodreads review by ❧TheTrueScholar on May 12, 2021

How ridiculous and ignorant of the world is one who is surprised at anything that comes to pass in life. (12.13) Cast everything else aside, then, and hold to these few truths alone; and remember, furthermore, that each of us lives only in the present, this fleeting moment of time, and that the re......more

Goodreads review by Amy on February 20, 2020

Full review available at warmdayswillnevercease.wordpress.com I found this book very interesting. Far more interesting than I expected to if I’m honest. It was fascinating to read Aurelius’ thoughts and his ideas about self-improvement. He’s very self-reflective and, knowing that this was his private......more

Goodreads review by Derek on September 13, 2016

Had Marcus not been such a bleeding heart pagan he surely would have been canonized a saint by the early Catholic Church. It's unmistakable the huge influences I noted with the tone of religious reverence Marcus has for nature law and the universe; it's unmistakably in my mind the influences this ha......more

Goodreads review by Lily on March 24, 2025

Read for uni. Left many of the lectures feeling a peace, knowing that the most powerful man in the western world (of the ancient world that is) didn’t need an ego trip and wanted to be a good person… but when he talks about death, it becomes some of the hardest stuff I’ve read. Maybe not a tradition......more

Goodreads review by Mark on August 07, 2024

A fascinating insight into the mind of one of the Roman Empire's great leaders and one who is strongly associated with stoicism. I feel like it was necessary to take my time while reading Meditations, as it really allowed me to process each passage rather than reading words just to finish the story.......more


Quotes

“Here, for our age, is [Marcus’s] great work presented in its entirety, strongly introduced and freshly, elegantly translated.” —Robert Fagles