Meditations

By: Marcus Aurelius, George Long - translator, Duncan Steen - translator

Narrated by: Duncan Steen

Length: 5 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

One of the most significant books ever written by a head of state, the Meditations are a collection of philosophical thoughts by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius (121 - 180 ce). Covering issues such as duty, forgiveness, brotherhood, strength in adversity and the best way to approach life and death, the Meditations have inspired thinkers, poets and politicians since their first publication more than 500 years ago. Today, the book stands as one of the great guides and companions - a cornerstone of Western thought.

Translation by George Long revised by Duncan Steen.

Download the accompanying reference guide.

Public Domain (P)2010 Naxos AudioBooks

Excelent reading of an excellent classic

Marcus Aurelius seems often to be regarded as the "father of Stoicism" and his Meditations as a sort of Stoic Bible. Neither of these things is true - Stoicism was founded centuries before his time, in Greece, and the emperor's "meditations" were basically his study notes and personal journals. He was writing only for himself, and never meant for his writings to be published after his death as a guide to others on how to live their lives.

Nonetheless, the Meditations are worthy of a deep, thoughtful read. Much of what Aurelius "teaches" can be considered common sense guidelines to approaching life, even if you are not a capital-s Stoic.


"You have power over your mind - not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength."


This is Stoicism in a nutshell: You cannot control other things and people - you can only control yourself. Aurelius belabors this point at length - that whatever happens is meant to happen, that you have no power to change what has happened or will happen, and that therefore your only choice is how you will react to it. And that reacting with emotion is foolish.

Much of his philosophy also boils down to telling oneself to rise above insults, injuries, and idiots.


Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall be meeting with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness – all of them due to the offenders’ ignorance of what is good or evil. But for my part I have long perceived the nature of good and its nobility, the nature of evil and its meanness, and also the nature of the culprit himself, who is my brother (not in the physical sense, but as a fellow creature similarly endowed with reason and a share of the divine); therefore none of those things can injure me, for nobody can implicate me in what is degrading. Neither can I be angry with my brother or fall foul of him; for he and I were born to work together, like a man’s two hands, feet or eyelids, or the upper and lower rows of his teeth. To obstruct each other is against Nature’s law – and what is irritation or aversion but a form of obstruction.


Stoicism often seems close to fatalism - one could conclude that if your life is basically out of your control and that everything and everyone will act according to their natures, there isn't much point in making plans or having hopes and dreams. But that isn't what Stoicism teaches, because the one thing you are in control of - yourself - is still a powerful agent in your life. Maybe you are (according to Stoic principles) fated to live a certain way and only that way, but you can choose to enjoy it or not, be miserable or not, be fulfilled or not.

Stoicism is powerful and requires a lot more study than just reading a Wikipedia summary or the meditations of one long-dead philosopher-emperor. But it appeals to me a lot, and so I really enjoyed reading Aurelius's words, even when he was expressing things that don't jive with my modern sensibilities. He was a pagan, of course, so he speaks of the gods as arbiters of our fates and the source of all that is good (a paradox I have always found amusing, given what fickle, spiteful jerks the gods are typically in Greco-Roman mythology), but sometimes he also refers to "God" as if he had also assimilated some monotheistic ideas.

Not everything in Aurelius's Meditations will resonate with everyone, but even if you are not interested in Stoicism per se, this is still a great philosophical and literary classic that is worth reading in its own right, for insights as to why an emperor from two thousand years ago is still so highly regarded.

The audiobook reading was pitch-perfect. I could listen to this guy speaking Stoic philosophy all day. Obviously Marcus Aurelius did not have a rich British accent, nor did he speak English, but still, it's easy to imagine his voice being like this, his accent being the equivalent, just as the words in translations probably don't use the exact same metaphors and figures of speech he did (and of course, in translation it's still quite deliberately stilted and archaic in cadence and sentence structure and vocabulary, when obviously Aurelius would have sounded more contemporary, if formal, to his own ears and those of his peers) but sound authentic.

Brilliant text. Great performance.

Aurelius has wisdom from which our society would benefit greatly.

Highly impressed with the depth of the content.

Excellent reading for the audio book.

Love this wonderful book and narrator

I am about halfway through, I can say I love this book. A series of small books by this ancient ruler who was centered in deep, high reason. After a lifetime so far of consideration about how to live a good life (centered more in Eastern traditions), I can relate the words said here with personal experience and lessons, which helps a lot.

I think if you take these words in with deep consideration, though simple, you will see that they have tremendous wisdom in them. There is a tremendous economy of language, such that it might go missed if you did not inquire into them deeply. And even though in narration, the words go fairly quickly, if you take them in they will relate to you. I plan to listen over to them many times.

The narrator Duncan Steen is masterful in my opinion. Such a clear, direct, calm, deliberate voice. He is my favorite narrator for any audiobook I have had. The narration is both thoughtful and measured, neither dispassionate nor given over to the passions, as Marcus Aurelius might perhaps put it.

A lot of useful material.

I’ve already listened to this book twice. I can see a third go-round. It’s obvious that the substance of these writings were deeply considered over the course of his lifetime. Today is my 57th birthday (09/03). I’ve been focused on ingesting books on starting a business, books about the lives of successful businessmen, books written to shed light on understanding life and discovering it’s purpose, philosophy and the classics. I’m searching, for meaning. Life goes by so fast. I work, I pay my bills, I do acceptably well. Sometimes, however, it feels slavish, feels like I am a slave in every real sense except the word itself. If I have a purpose, outside of working, paying bills, paying taxes and dropping dead, I haven’t identified it yet. I have trouble believing that my life was just an arbitrary accident. I believe I (we all) have a purpose, a reason for being, independent of the machine within which we exist (constantly restrained, used, bled, monetized, from the cradle to the grave). I believe most of what I’ve seen/been taught has been nothing but a lie and that there are definitely designed structures in place whose sole reason for being is control (ie. Covid masks, vaccinations, media, attempts to introduce pride and pronouns and other such BS at the grade-school level, etc.). The more I see, the less I believe. I find many of our country’s social issues to be a myriad of attempts intended to lead our country (and maybe the world) in incredibly questionable directions. So, I’ve withdrawn from TV, YouTube, from most anything that seeks to influence my thinking and rather to seek out my own answers. I want freedom. I want out of this lie. I’ve taken to ingesting these books as though my life depends on it, at least they were honestly written, which is a lot more than I can say for a lot of the crap that is published today and put out by the media. This book was well written. If you’re also searching to understand without all the static of that flow of information only designed to confuse and control, there are a lot of very noteworthy books out there. This seems to be one of them. I recommend it.

PATRICIAN BEHAVIORS

Human Behavior for Patrician Way of Life. A very good book on wisdom, life and approach to death.

Excellent book

Across the centuries Marcus Aurelius is as relevant today. I thought this claasic would be a struggle to get through but now I'm going to listen again it just sped by. The voice performance was perfect and i found quiet relaxing taking nothing away from the text.

GREAT BOOK FOR ALL AREAS OF LIFE

What did you love best about Meditations?

Very good values and virtues that anyone of any religion/non-religion can agree to

What other book might you compare Meditations to and why?

Titan - John D Rockefeller

What about Duncan Steen’s performance did you like?

He sounded like he was from a different time which ads to the authenticity of the book

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

no----it is one you will listen to many times though...well worth the money

Wonderful listen

Wisdom from the past that's very applicable in the present! Some very insightful words from an intelligent mind.

True wisdom, read by Professor Snape

Was very impressed by this book. I bought it on sale an expected a dull read with philosophy that was no longer relevant in today's society. I got the exact opposite. All the lessons are still very relevant and thought provoking. I now have serious respect for Marcus Aurelius and western philosophy. The fact that in ~170 AD Marcus Aurelius was able to make such accurate observations of life and human nature, and that these observations still hold strong today has left me awestruck.

The only downside is that the narrator sounds like Professor Snape from the Harry Potter movies. It seems like he's going for a classical sounding voice but I don't think he quite pulled it off.

How did he become an Emperor?

Reminds me of Buddhism in the development of equanimity. I see it as a flaw that the author bases so much on the idea of a created Universe which then leads to the natural being good. It is not possible to prove that so it weakens his argument. However, given the age of the author, my complaint is not fully justified. Overall, the advice seemed quite sound and useful.