Books Written by Marcus Aurelius

Meditations

Marcus Aurelius · Written c. 170–180 AD

Marcus Aurelius wrote one book. He called it nothing — the title Meditations was added by later editors. He wrote it in Greek, not Latin, which was already unusual for a Roman emperor. He wrote it in camp during military campaigns, alone, with no intention of publication. It is twelve books of personal notes — reminders to himself to stay focused, to stop being petty, to remember that all things pass, to treat people decently regardless of whether they deserve it. It has been in continuous circulation for nearly two thousand years. Gregory the Great read it. Frederick the Great carried it on campaign. Bill Clinton listed it as the book he would bring to a desert island. None of that matters much. What matters is whether it works for you — and for most people who reach it at the right moment, it does.

The unusual thing about Meditations is that it was never written to be persuasive. It does not argue. It does not try to convince you of anything. It is a man talking to himself — a very powerful, very burdened man — and the honesty of that is what makes it hit. He is not performing wisdom. He is trying, imperfectly, to live it. Reading it, you get the sense of someone struggling with the same things you struggle with: distraction, irritation, the temptation to give up, the difficulty of being good at something without letting it make you insufferable. Two thousand years collapse into nothing.

Meditations — translated by Gregory Hays

Modern Library Edition · 2002

The Hays translation is the one most people mean when they recommend Meditations today. It reads in contemporary English — clean, direct, without the Victorian stiffness of older versions — which lets the actual ideas land without the language getting in the way. Hays also provides a substantial introduction on Marcus’s life and historical context that is genuinely useful for understanding what he was writing in response to.

Start here. If you have never read Aurelius, this is the version that will make you understand why people keep coming back to it. The sentences are short and the argument is cumulative — by the time you finish you have absorbed something without quite knowing when it happened.

→ My best self-improvement books list — Meditations belongs in this company

Meditations — translated by Robin Waterfield

Oxford University Press · 2021

The Waterfield translation is newer and, for those who want a more rigorous text, arguably the most accurate currently available. Waterfield is an ancient Greek scholar and his footnotes and commentary are extensive — this is the edition for readers who want to understand the specific philosophical arguments Marcus is making and where they come from within the broader Stoic tradition. It is slightly less fluid to read than Hays but considerably more precise.

If you have already read Meditations once and want to go deeper — to understand what Marcus actually means by concepts like hegemonikon (the rational faculty) or the physics underlying his ethics — this is the edition that does that work. The introduction alone is worth the price.

Meditations — translated by George Long

Originally published 1862 · Public domain

The Long translation is Victorian in its cadence and occasionally stilted, but it is free, available in full online, and still captures the essential gravity of the text. Many of the most quoted passages that circulate online come from the Long translation. If you want to read Meditations tonight without buying anything, this is where to go.

Worth reading if only to understand which translation most of the internet is quoting. The archaic language creates a certain distance that some readers find appropriate for a Roman emperor; others find it off-putting. Either way, it is the same text.