Meditations: The Annotated Edition

For both new and longtime readers, Robin Waterfield’s definitive translation and rich annotations offer everything they need to understand one of the most powerful works of practical philosophy ever written.

“A treat (and an eye-opening experience) … If you haven’t read Marcus Aurelius or if you have…you should read this book and then read it again.”―Ryan Holiday, bestselling author of The Daily Stoic

An inexhaustible source of wisdom, Meditations is one of the greatest works of popular philosophy ever written. As Roman emperor, Marcus Aurelius was the most powerful man in the world, yet he was also an intensely private person with a rich interior life and one of the wisest minds of his generation. He collected his thoughts in notebooks, the entries ranging from one-line aphorisms to essays, from profundity to bitterness, but always with an eye to how one can live with dignity and thrive in an adverse world. This edition offers the definitive translation of this much beloved text. Copious notes from world-renowned classics expert Robin Waterfield enrich the understanding of even the most devoted Stoic, while guiding those new to the text through Marcus Aurelius’ world and the timeless insights he offers.

Robin Waterfield is a British classical scholar, translator, and editor, specializing in ancient Greek philosophy and history. Among others, his translations include Plato’s Republic, Herodotus’s The Histories, and Aesop’s Fables. He lives in Greece.