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Marcus Aurelius's "meditations" were not meant for publication nor posterity, yet the Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher has provided inspiration and guidance for more than eighteen centuries.

Now, after nearly 2,000 years, Mark Forstater has adapted the ideas and principles relevant to the Roman world of the second century and has made them accessible to the 21st-century student

"Whether we become the benevolent consciousness of the earth or its destroyer lies in the will, the desires, and the inner being of every man and woman alive today. The question of survival on earth may well be the ethical question that Socrates asked over 2,300 years ago: 'What is the right way to live?'

If we want to survive into the next millennium, we could do worse than take lessons from the Stoics and from Marcus Aurelius on how to live our lives."