Meditations · Marcus Aurelius

The Meditations is the title of a series of reflections, divided into twelve books, written in Greek between 170 and 180 by the emperor Marcus Aurelius.

Written in a simple, cold style during his military campaigns as ruler of the Roman Empire, the Meditations are a series of aphorisms and short reflections on duty, death and the behavior of the wise in the face of human error and wickedness. Marcus Aurelius, himself a Stoic philosopher, develops the tradition of Epictetus, according to which the deepest duty of every man is not to concern himself with what does not depend on him - material goods, honors, the opinion of others - but to make himself the perfect ruler of his feelings, opinions and judgments, the only things over which he has complete control.

The Meditations is considered a masterpiece of literature and philosophy and has been read by Queen Christine, Frederick the Great, John Stuart Mill, Matthew Arnold, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Giacomo Leopardi, Arthur Schopenhauer, Emil Cioran, Leo Tolstoy, Simone Weil, Michel Onfray, Wen Jiabao and Bill Clinton, among others.