Who recommended Meditations?

37 people have recommended Meditations in the interviews, articles and reading lists we track, including Naval Ravikant, Nat Eliason, Derek Sivers and Ryan Holiday. Each name links to their full reading list.

Is Meditations worth reading?

37 people we track recommend it. It is best for: A founder who just lost a key team member and is oscillating between fury and despair—Marcus's reminders that other people's actions are outside your control may help you reframe the loss without pretending it does not hurt.; A parent managing both a career and a toddler who needs a book that can be read two pages at a time in the bathroom—Meditations was literally written in fragments between military campaigns.; A reader who bounced off modern self-help and wants something that does not pretend to have answers, just a person struggling honestly with what it means to live well.. It may not suit: You will bounce hard if you expect a narrative or a philosophical treatise with a clear structure—Meditations is a journal, not a book, and the repetition that comforts Stoics will drive you up the wall.; You will likely lose interest when you realize Marcus is writing for himself and does not explain Stoic concepts for a modern audience—terms like the logos and nature are used without definition.; Skip if you are in a headspace where control what you can, accept what you cannot feels dismissive rather than helpful—the Stoic response to grief can read as emotional bypassing..

What books are like Meditations?

Readers of Meditations also turn to The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, The World as It Is and Out of Control, based on the lists and recommenders these books share.

Meditations by Marcus Aurelius: Recommended by 37 People

Name: Meditations
Author: Marcus Aurelius
ISBN: 9781853264863

The "Meditations" of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius are a readable exposition of the system of metaphysics known as stoicism. Stoics maintained that by putting aside great passions, unjust thoughts and indulgence, man could acquire virtue and live at one with nature. The Meditations were composed in periods of inaction during the wars which Marcus hated but was compelled to fight.