Whenever someone else blames or hates you . . ., approach their souls, penetrate inside and see what sort of people they are. You will see that you shouldn’t torment yourself so that they should think in a certain way about you.you must, however, think kindly of them, for by nature they are friends﻿

“I am leaving a world in which even my companions, for whom I struggled, prayed and worried so much, wish me gone, hoping for some relief thereby.”

To Depart or Dying.

Little then is each man’s life and little the corner of the earth he
 lives in, and little even the longest survival of his fame with posterity, and that too
 passed on through a succession of poor mortals, each one of them soon to die, with
 no knowledge of themselves even, let alone of a man who has died long ago

How many a Chrysippus, how many a Socrates, how
 many an Epictetus has eternity already devoured

Philosophy Knows No Bound

‘Turn inwards to your own self whenever you blame a traitor or an ungrateful person, for it is clearly your own fault, if you trusted such a man to keep loyal.’

Reflection on Treachery

Marcus Aurelius, the philosopher-emperor who ruled the Roman Empire between AD 161 and 180, is one of the best recorded individuals from antiquity. Even his face became more than usually familiar: the imperial coinage displayed his portrait for over 40 years, from the clean-shaven young heir of Antonius to the war-weary, heavily bearded ruler who died at his post in his late fifties. His correspondence with his tutor Fronto, and even more the private notebook he kept for his last ten years, the Meditations, provides a unique series of vivid and revealing glimpses into the character and peoccupations of this emporer who spent many years in terrible wars against northern tribes. In this accessible and scholarly study, Professor Birley paints a portrait of an emporer who was human and just - an embodiment of the pagan virtues of Rome.

Marcus Aurelius

MARCUS AURELIUS

To Depart or Dying.

MARCUS AURELIUS

Philosophy Knows No Bound

Reflection on Treachery

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