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Unhappy am I, because this has happened to me--Not so, but happy am I, though this has happened to me, because I continue free from pain, neither crushed by the present nor fearing the future. For such a thing as this might have happened to every man; but every man would not have continued free from pain on such an occasion. Why then is that rather a misfortune than this a good fortune?

--Book IV, 49



Meditations is a collection of personal writings, ruminations, and reflections by the second-century Roman emperor Marcus Aurelius, composed during his reign from AD 161 to 180. Though not formally published during his lifetime, these reflections on Stoic philosophy and the nature of existence have since been compiled into one of the most influential works of ancient philosophy. It is a spiritual journal of the author's philosophical exercises and a chronicle of the paradox of the philosopher-king, who must enforce the law and administer justice while looking beyond politics to the cosmic vantage point from which the tribulations of politics come to seem trivial.