Meditations: A New Translation (Modern Library)

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While I ask for nothing to be watered down, I recommend to any prospective reader the selection of a translation written in the language of the current century or, at the very least, the last one. If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I like some of the briefer entries, like the image of human beings as lumps of incense burning on an altar (4. We are driven by a deep understanding of continuous improvement tools and the opportunities they represent.

p With an Introduction that outlines Marcus's life and career, the essentials of Stoic doctrine, the style and construction of the Meditations, and the work's ongoing influence, this edition makes it possible to fully rediscover the thoughts of one of the most enlightened and intelligent leaders of any era. He disagreed with the dead philosophers he was in dialogue with, on occasion - so I suppose I'm continuing on in the tradition. Even with Hays's background on the book being a disconnected personal journal, my brain still tried to read it as if the paragraphs were somehow connected.What is there to say, that hasn't already been said, about words written for oneself almost two millennia in the past?

I think the repetitions give us clues to the things that Marcus found especially difficult or troublesome. It not only made me realize that I have already been living the Stoic philosophy in many ways, but encouraged me to dig further into Stoic readings and go straight to the source. For all of the pessimism at times in the work, I find that Meditations is very quotable and that is where Meditations shines. There is no evidence that Marcus experienced anything like the “conversion” to philosophy that some ancient figures experienced (or affected), but it is clear that by the middle to late 140s philosophy was becoming increasingly central to his life. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages.That whenever I felt like helping someone who was short of money, or otherwise in need, I never had to be told that I had no resources to do it with. I give it four stars only because there is no other choice to get this translation, and this translation is valuable. He let the pages slip past his fingers to the fly leaf where was written with a broad carpenter’s pencil, “Sam’l Hamilton. It is interesting to learn that people in Rome two thousand years ago were struggling with self-confidence and outside influences.

I went through both versions and saw that I either highlighted or underlined 104 meditations or verses in the book as a whole.One of the questions people ask me most often is: “Which edition of The Meditations would it be best for me to read first? Waterfield does not use the term logos, the Greek term for universal reason, providence, or God (there are a few mentions in the footnotes but not in Waterfield’s translation of Marcus’s words). Making it a daunting task to go back and forth to further dive into some of the harder to understand passages. It also contains valuable excerpts from the correspondence between Marcus and his rhetoric tutor Marcus Cornelius Fronto.

His choice fell on the childless senator Antoninus, whom he selected with the proviso that Antoninus should in turn adopt Marcus (his nephew by marriage) along with Ceionius’s son Lucius Verus, then aged seven. In Gregory Hays's new translation-the first in thirty-five years-Marcus's thoughts speak with a new immediacy. Not expecting his friends to keep him entertained at dinner or to travel with him (unless they wanted to). The historian Herodian, writing in the mid-3rd century, makes mention of Marcus' literary legacy, saying "He was concerned with all aspects of excellence, and in his love of ancient literature he was second to no man, Roman or Greek; this is evident from all his sayings and writings which have come down to us", a passage which may refer to the Meditations. It has been proposed that this epigram was written by the Byzantine scholar Theophylact Simocatta in the 7th century.

Arethas also mentions the work in marginal notes ( scholia) to books by Lucian and Dio Chrysostom where he refers to passages in the "Treatise to Himself" ( Greek: τὰ εἰς ἑαυτὸν ἠθικά), and it was this title which the book bore in the manuscript from which the first printed edition was made in the 16th century. Stoicism is not without its faults, but it absolutely has tenants and perspectives that have enriched my everyday lived experience. It's important to read this with a contextual understanding of consistency and never giving up attitude. In short, I recommend any reader of Meditations by Marcus Aurelius to put forth a concerted, mindful effort.