Meditaciones

You have in your hands a book worth its weight in gold. It is the book written by Marcus Aurelius, the most powerful and wise man of his time. The one who influenced Philip II of Spain, Frederick II of Prussia, Catherine II of Russia or George Washington. The one who inspired Christian asceticism, influenced the European Enlightenment and conditioned contemporary philosophy through the transcendentalism of Emerson and Thoreau. The one Roosevelt read in moments of anguish. The one that Bill Clinton still reads incessantly today. The one that today's environmentalists love. The one that in our time has managed to fascinate the magnates of the big technology companies. A golden book. Stoicism has burst into force in our time, since the 21st century shares many vicissitudes and difficulties with Late Antiquity. The Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor, are a work of incredible intellectual depth and perhaps the best manual on how to live serenely that has ever been written.