Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library Classics)

Product Information

As you kiss your son good night, says Epictetus, whisper to yourself, 'He may be dead in the morning.' No matter what happens, keep this in mind: It's the same old thing, from one end of the world to the other. It fills the history books, ancient and modern, and the cities, and the houses too. Nothing new at all." In Gregory Hays’s new translation—the first in thirty-five years—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. Marcus Aurelius isn't being prescriptive here. He's not even asking us to look internally to ourselves to become better people, or deal with grief or suffering or anger. He's asking himself to look internally. It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own. If god appeared to us – or a wise human being, even – and prohibited us from concealing our thoughts or imagining anything without immediately shouting it out, we wouldn’t make it through a single day. That’s how much we value other people’s opinions – instead of our own. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

Meditations: A New Translation: Aurelius, Marcus, Hays

Forgive yourself and others. Holding on to anger and resentment will only hurt you in the long run. Forgive yourself and others so that you can move on with your life. Life happens" is a very stoic modern phrase, and I think it sums it up fairly well. Of course there's more to Stoicism, but a constant theme throughout Meditations is the need to not push against the flow of life; to accept what "Nature" has done. Your car breaks down? Well, getting upset about it is causing you unnecessary suffering and grief. Accept what life has thrown at you and move on with it. Alexander Pope said, "whatever is, is right." Frightened of change? But what can exist without it? What’s closer to nature’s heart? Can you take a hot bath and leave the firewood as it was? Eat food without transforming it? Can any vital process take place without something being changed? to approach this thought with care, so that nothing irrational creeps in. Meditations by Marcus AureliusBe grateful for what you have. There is always someone who has less than you do. Be grateful for the things that you have, no matter how small they may seem. Today I escaped my anxiety. Or no, I discarded it, because it was within me, in my own perceptions – not outside. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius He - like many of us - understands the nature of the world. We've read Ecclesiastes - Vanity of vanities: all is vanity. ...What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it is said, “See, this is new”? It has been already in the ages before us. There is no remembrance of former things, nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after." When faced with people’s bad behavior, turn around and ask when you have acted like that. When you saw money as a good, or pleasure, or social position Your anger will subdue as soon as you recognize that they acted under compulsion (what else could they do?). Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

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

Marcus Aurelius used philosophy as we used religion — as a way of constructing a worldview and of ethics and a proper way of living. Of all the different philosophies, Marcus Aurelius most heavily ascribed to Stoicism. "Stoicism has even been described, not altogether unfairly, as the real religion of upper-class Romans," Hays writes in the Introduction. Stoicism not only is concerned with how to live one's life, but also how to view the world. "Roman stoicism, by contract, was a practical discipline—not an abstract system of thought, but an attitude of life." Book Review, Highlights, and Quotes from Meditations: A New Translation by Marcus Aurelius – Translated by Gregory Hays He also confronts death, change, nature, human interactions. As put by Hays, Meditations recurring themes are: And why is it so hard when things go against you? If it’s imposed by nature, accept it gladly and stop fighting it. And if not, work out what your own nature requires, and aim at that, even if it brings you no glory. Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

The idea of Marcus Aurelius's Meditations is as inspiring as the contents. This was at its core a personal self-help book that Marcus used. It wasn't a journal or a diary because it rarely recounted events. It was more of a custom self-help book, a place where Marcus would give advice to himself and articulate his arguments and worldview.