Marcus Aurelius Antoninus was the Roman emperor from 161 to 180 AD. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors (a term coined by Niccolò Machiavelli), and the last emperor of the Pax Romana, an age of relative peace and stability for the Roman Empire.

He was also a Stoic philosopher!

This Book is a philosophy paperback that everyone can read and should read at some point in their lives. I will be using it as a reference book as there’s certain passages I will need reminding of in the future, if I fail to heed Marcus’s wise words.

It would be unfair to place many quotes in this Review as they’d only represent a small percentage of the ones that impressed me and people are different and other ideas will resonate with other people. I will choose three from Page 39 of my book.

Point 40 Book 4

Always think of the universe as one living organism with a single substance and a single soul; and observe how all things are submitted to the single perceptivity of this one whole, all are moved by its single impulse and all play their part in the causation of every event that happens.

Point 42 Book 4

To be in process of change is not an evil, any more than to be the product of change is a good.

Point 43 Book 4

Time is a river, the restless flow of all created things. One thing no sooner comes in sight than it is hurried past and another is borne along, only to be swept away in its turn.