Meditations

It is absolutely amazing that a personal journal of disparate thoughts and daily occurrences can have so much relevance after over eighteen hundred years. That these thoughts came from a warlike and brutal emperor of Rome underlines the fact that people can have so many levels and personalities.

As a collection, the Meditations have underlined philosophical thought for all these years and for good reason. His musings on how even great men perish is as true today as ever. He cautions about giving thought and meaning to how others perceive us. And most importantly, he gives meaning to death as inevitable and natural. In this he lays a foundation of stoic thought and practice.

This annotated version is quite scholarly and there are as many footnotes as musings from Aurelius. This book can be a formidable study for a serious reader but is also worthwhile to someone like me who is interested in the philosophy and time-tested thought of a great and influential man.