Marcus Aurelius - Meditations (Penguin, 2006) ***

Marcus Aurelius was a Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD and a philosopher. He wrote his "Meditations" on an almost daily basis while campaigning somewhere in his empire. His personal musings on life were never intended for publication, but eventually they were bundled into the 12 books that became the "Meditations". 

His philosophy is stoic - sobriety, humility, courage, strength of character, the power of reason. His meditations are also influenced by the naturaly philosophy of the Greeks, with a cosmic perspective on the broad universe and the tiny atoms that make all things. The relativity of human life is one of his key topics as well as the need to live a rational and moral life. Many of his sentences raise questions more than answering them. And often they are messages to himself: instructions on how to live. Some examples: 

• "No more roundabout discussion of what makes a good man. Be one!"
• "Keep constantly in your mind an impression of the whole of time and the whole of existence - and the thought that each individual thing is, on the scale of existence, a mere fig-seed, on the scale of time, one turn of a drill". 
• What dies does not pass out of the universe. If it remains here and is changed, then here too it is resolved into the everlasting constituents, which are the elements of the universe and of you yourself. These too change, and make no complaint of it. 
• 'If you want to be happy', says Democritus, 'do little.' May it not be better to do what is necessary, what the reason of a naturally social being demands, and the way reason demands it done? This brings the happiness both of right action and of little action. Most of what we say and do is unnecessary: remove the superfluity, and you will have more time and less bother. So in every case one should prompt oneself: 'Is this, or is it not, something necessary?' And the removal of the unnecessary should apply not only to actions but to thoughts also: then no redundant actions either will follow".
• Either an ordered universe, or a stew of mixed ingredients, yet still coherent order. Otherwise how could a sort of private order subsist within you, if there is disorder in the Whole? Especially given that all things, distinct as they are, nevertheless permeate and respond to each other."

Even if many of his reflections are outdated, many are equally still fresh today, with practical or spiritual questions that are worthy of thought for us now. In that sense, his "Meditations" are more than just a historical report of what the emperor wrote, but also still meaningful for people living today. 

The book is not meant to be read will be quickly obvious to the reader: there are endless repetitions on the same or similar thoughts. There is obviously no structure or build-up, let alone a coherent essay on his philosophy.  So it should be seen as a resource for little ideas to read and juggle with one in a while.