Excerpt from The Meditations of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus: Newly Translated From the Greek, With Notes, and an Account of His Life He lhewed his perpetual gratitude to thel'e good men; not only by promoting them in the world, to dignity. And wealth; but by a continual relpeet for them, even when he was in the highell eleva 0 tion of fortune: And, in the very beginning of his meditations, he has perpetuated their meluory, his own gratitude, and his honell humility, in afcrib ing all his virtues to their inliruetions, and nothing to himfelf; in a manner truly original, and pecu liar to him. He lindied alfo the laws of his coun try under Volutins Mecianus, the molt celebrated lawyer of that age. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
[Book Review] Meditations, The Original Self-Help Book I know Gladiator is an epic movie, with one of the most memorable lines in cinematic history ever written. It is also perhaps the most popular portrayal of the Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius. Which is a sad thing, because all that people associate with the name Aurelius is an old king who makes the fatal judgement of not suppressing his son severely enough. Basically, the senile elder who has to die for the plot to advance. In real life, Emperor Aurelius, not the fictional General Maximus, is the true gangster, but for a reason you would never expect. His diary survived. Aurelius’ magisterial work, Meditations, has garnered stellar repute among those who seek guidance on life and living. A text written in the second century, it has often been deemed one of the most important works on Stoicism, the philosophy of endurance and forbearance. Meditations instructs how one reacts to the surrounding world and leads a good life. Personally, I consider it among the most useful texts I have ever had the fortune to read. Meditations is the collection of Emperor Aurelius’ private thoughts and contemplations, directed towards nobody but himself. The text consists of 12 books, chronicling different periods of the author’s life. Meditations examines numerous themes, including good versus evil, mortality, identity, freedom, peace and control. It is arguably the first self-help book because the emperor wrote it with the intention of guiding himself through challenging times. That is the literal definition of self-help. The biggest strength of Meditations is that it is enormously applicable to contemporary life. Not many texts written in the second century, or even later, for that matter, could boast such a prestigious claim. Aurelius dealt with multiple aspects of the human experience, ranging from maintaining an ethical conduct to enduring pain. It is truly mind-boggling how an ancient book offers so much value in today’s context. I am not alone in this assessment. The rise of Stoicism in recent years has led to a resurgence in readership of Meditations, and Emperor Aurelius, along with Seneca, is often regarded as the flag-bearers of the philosophy. If any man despises me, that is his problem. My only concern is not doing or saying anything deserving of contempt. Haters gonna hate, philosopher style. The lessons Meditations confers upon the reader is timeless. Which makes me wonder, how could the lived experience of an ancient Roman emperor offers so much insight into what modern inhabitants of the earth are going through? You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength. The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts. Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth. Waste no more time arguing about what a good man should be. Be one. If someone is able to show me that what I think or do is not right, I will happily change, for I seek the truth, by which no one was ever truly harmed. It is the person who continues in his self-deception and ignorance who is harmed. Because the text was intended to be private, Aurelius did not waste time with flowery language or creative imagery. The bulk of Meditations is plain and often in imperatives. He was instructing himself, after all. Most English translations of the text are remarkably accessible to the common reader. Take a look at some quotes: Life is neither good or evil, but only a place for good and evil. The best revenge is to be unlike him who performed the injury. Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul. Whenever you are about to find fault with someone, ask yourself the following question: What fault of mine most nearly resembles the one I am about to criticize? When you arise in the moring, think of what a precious privelege it is to be alive– to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love. I can quote Meditations all day long. Basically, the text is a copious collection of quotes, all of which are straightforward and to the point. Keepin’ it real, as the layman would say. On rare occasions where Aurelius invokes imagery, those are imminently easy to grasp: You might as well resent a fig tree for secreting juice. Be like the cliff against which the waves continually break; but it stands firm and tames the fury of the water around it. Whatever anyone does or says, I must be emerald and keep my colour. Forget all the edgy, feel-good quotes mushrooming on the Internet these days. Excerpts from Meditations deserve to be made into posters for all to see. The second major asset of Meditations is that it is magic all over the place. In the 12 books that make up the collection, I have not found a single chapter in which there is not something to learn. You can jump in anywhere and there will be a sentence or paragraph that is waiting to speak to you. The very first paragraph of the book already tells you you are in for a treat: 1. From my grandfather Verus I learned to relish the beauty of manners, and to restrain all anger. From the fame and character my father obtain’d, modesty, and a manly deportment. Of my mother; I learned to be religious, and liberal; and to guard, not only against evil actions, but even against any evil intention’s entering my thoughts; to content myself with a spare diet, far different from the softness and luxury so common among the wealthy. Of my great-grandfather; not to frequent public schools and auditories; but to have good and able teachers at home; and for things of this nature, to account no expence too great. I have the audio version of Meditations, and throughout, I pick up something worth learning every minute. The book is simply chock full of wisdom. I even put the chapters on shuffle, which does not diminish my understanding at all. On the list of books that have high rereadability, Meditations must be a heavy contender for the top spot. The book remains of the few texts I revisit every now and often (some others are Strunk’s The Elements of Style and Machiavelli’s The Prince, if you ever wondered). A reading feels like a new conversation with an old friend who never runs out of things to say. Every time I delve into the book, I seem to find myself a new favourite quote. I am not alone in this regard. This dude has read Meditations 100 times, yet he still learns something new every time he picks it up. A point that bears repeating is we were never supposed to read Meditations. The collection of thoughts and musings was private, never intended for public consumption. Aurelius wrote this for himself, for his own guidance and improvement. Amid the busyness of military campaigns and overseeing the greatest empire on earth, he carved up the time to reflect and compose this text. It is our fortune that Meditations survived to the present day. Readers often consider the text a philosophical treatise, while it was intended to be the diary of the most powerful man at the time. Truly one of a kind. As a parting gift, I present to you my current top 5 gems from Meditations: It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinion of himself than on the opinion of others. Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good. Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil. A man’s worth is no greater than the worth of his ambitions. I really hope you will give Meditations a shot. It is such a good self-help book that I suspect will never completely lose readership even as humanity moves forward. The free Ebook version can be found here, here, here or if you want the audio version, here. You will marvel at its sheer simplicity and brilliance. I know I did. Good luck and may Meditations change your life for the better.
