Meditations: Complete and Unabridged (Clydesdale Classics) - Softcover

Aurelius, Marcus

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1945186240 ISBN 13: 9781945186240

Publisher: Clydesdale, 2018

Synopsis

Completely unabridged, with a new foreword written by Huffington Post writer Carolyn Gregoire, this publication of Meditations is an all-encompassing collection of Marcus Aurelius’s works.

• “Do every deed, speak every word, think every thought in the knowledge that you may end your days any moment.”
• “We have body, soul, and intelligence. To the body belong the senses, to the soul the passions, to the intelligence principles.”
• “Think not as your insulter judges or wishes you to judge: but see things as they truly are.”
• “To pursue impossibilities is madness; and it is impossible that the wicked should not act in some such way as this.”
• “Order not your life as though you had ten thousand years to live. Fate hangs over you. While you live, while yet you may, be good.”

Meditations is a collection of twelve books written by Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius. This set of books was originally compiled in the form of private journals. Marcus Aurelius used these notes as personal guides to live by and to better himself as a ruler.

He compiled these journals during his time as emperor, and while they were not intended for public consumption, there are valuable lessons to be gleaned from his wisdom. The entries include his views of stoicism—the Hellenistic philosophy devoid of “destructive emotions” that could tamper with logic—and its practical use in ruling and military tactics.

About this title

Review

One measure, perhaps, of a book's worth, is its intergenerational pliancy: do new readers acquire it and interpret it afresh down through the ages? The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, translated and introduced by Gregory Hays, by that standard, is very worthwhile, indeed. Hays suggests that its most recent incarnation--as a self-help book--is not only valid, but may be close to the author's intent. The book, which Hays calls, fondly, a "haphazard set of notes," is indicative of the role of philosophy among the ancients in that it is "expected to provide a 'design for living.'" And it does, both aphoristically ("Think of yourself as dead. You have lived your life. Now take what's left and live it properly.") and rhetorically ("What is it in ourselves that we should prize?"). Whether these, and other entries ("Enough of this wretched, whining monkey life.") sound life-changing or like entries in a teenager's diary is up to the individual reader, as it should be. Hays's introduction, which sketches the life of Marcus Aurelius (emperor of Rome A.D. 161-180) as well as the basic tenets of stoicism, is accessible and jaunty. --H. O'Billovich

From the Author

Marcus Aurelius was born in 121 AD. He was the Roman emperor between 161 AD and 180 AD. His Meditations are our closest link to Ancient Stoicism and its practices.

Carolyn Gregoire is a senior writer at the Huffington Post. Her focus areas include human behavior, psychology, and neuroscience. Her work has been featured in the New Republic, Time magazine, Scientific American, among other publications. Additionally, she is the coauthor of the book Wired to Create. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

About this edition

• Publisher: Clydesdale
• Publication date: 2018
• ISBN 10: 1945186240
• ISBN 13: 9781945186240
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 304