A review by michaelferlazzo
Meditations by Marcus Aurelius

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective medium-paced

4.5

Ok, so I had heard that this book was very good, but I did not know it would be this good! Extremely thoughtful, his prose is so forward and plainspoken, the contents are easily obtainable. It’s a book filled with sayings of common sense, that everyone subconsciously knows, but have never thought to think of, leading to you becoming out of practice with common sense. I do think that he is a bit haughty and full of self pride in the dispensing of his wisdom, but other than that, not much else to complain about. I wish I had read this before taking a philosophy 101 class instead of after, because everything would have made so much more sense, (and I would have been top of the class). I also really enjoyed learning about stoicism in this book.

Let’s see, my favorite quote (I know I can’t believe I’m starting to do this with books now!) is “In the constitution of the rational animal I see no virtue which is opposed to justice; but I see a virtue which is opposed to love of pleasure, and that is temperance.” (Temperance being ἐγκράτεια, meaning self control). I know, hela studious huh?

Anyway, 4.5 because he disses on Christians even when recognizing that the goals of a stoic and a Christian are similar, and he seems full of himself