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A review by sackofbeans
The Essential Marcus Aurelius by John Piazza, Jacob Needleman
4.0
I've recently been semi-randomly stumbling upon the philosophy of Stoicism, and so decided to check out Marcus Aurelius' Meditations as this collection is more frequently known.
The only reason why I went for this particular translation/edition is because it was the only one available in ebook format from my county's library system on the Overdrive app, and I wanted to try something out on my new Kindle Paperwhite. Sounds like there are plenty of translations to pick from, with this particular version being more modern and edited for clarity than others. So perhaps it is not as "pure" and academic, but for someone curious about Stoicism and only wanting to stick their toe in it was perfect.
The amazing thing about this collection of the emperor's thoughts are that it shows people thousands of years ago struggled with events mentally the same way we do today.
There was one particular passage I found amusing in that the author states some thing along the lines of how on some days it's harder to get out of bed than others, that it would be so nice to stay under the covers all day than to get up and do anything. Yet, he continues, it is our responsibility as human beings to get out of bed to go make the world a better place for other humans. So fortunate we are to be blessed with existence and the ability to go run errands, how silly to waste it being unproductive when some day we shall be dead.
What I find fascinating is that his way of thinking reminds me of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, where people think about and react to their own thoughts in order to live less negative, and more positive fulfilling lives.
"Man, this sucks, I feel awful."
"Are you sure it sucks, self? You are pretty gosh darn lucky, considering the circumstances. You try pretty hard to be a decent human being, too, so you have that going for you."
"Oh yeah, thanks me! "
An awesome self-help book for a collection of thoughts that were never meant to be read by anyone other than Marcus himself.
The only reason why I went for this particular translation/edition is because it was the only one available in ebook format from my county's library system on the Overdrive app, and I wanted to try something out on my new Kindle Paperwhite. Sounds like there are plenty of translations to pick from, with this particular version being more modern and edited for clarity than others. So perhaps it is not as "pure" and academic, but for someone curious about Stoicism and only wanting to stick their toe in it was perfect.
The amazing thing about this collection of the emperor's thoughts are that it shows people thousands of years ago struggled with events mentally the same way we do today.
There was one particular passage I found amusing in that the author states some thing along the lines of how on some days it's harder to get out of bed than others, that it would be so nice to stay under the covers all day than to get up and do anything. Yet, he continues, it is our responsibility as human beings to get out of bed to go make the world a better place for other humans. So fortunate we are to be blessed with existence and the ability to go run errands, how silly to waste it being unproductive when some day we shall be dead.
What I find fascinating is that his way of thinking reminds me of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, where people think about and react to their own thoughts in order to live less negative, and more positive fulfilling lives.
"Man, this sucks, I feel awful."
"Are you sure it sucks, self? You are pretty gosh darn lucky, considering the circumstances. You try pretty hard to be a decent human being, too, so you have that going for you."
"Oh yeah, thanks me! "
An awesome self-help book for a collection of thoughts that were never meant to be read by anyone other than Marcus himself.