Alone with myself. Reflections (processed and updated edition)

The Roman emperor Mark Aurelius Antonin (121-180) rightly earned the nickname "philosopher on the throne". "The time of human life is a moment. Its essence is an eternal course. The sensation is vague. The body is brave. The soul is unstable. Fate is mysterious, glory is unreliable ... Life is a struggle and wandering in a foreign land. Posthumous glory is oblivion. But what can take on the path? .. Nothing but philosophy "is the words of both the sage and the ruler at the same time.
Self -discipline, composure and courage not only helped Marcus Aurelius cope with disappointment in life and painful loneliness, but allowed to give the finished form the teachings of the Stoics and become the most influential of the philosophers of ancient Rome. Without a warlike character, Marcus Aurelius was forced to spend his whole life in military campaigns. He wrote his "thoughts" in a camp, tormented by a serious illness. This book is also known under the name "alone with him" (according to the testimony of his doctor, the famous Galen, the last words of the emperor were: “It seems that I will be left alone with myself today”).
And although Marcus Aurelius, like many of his contemporaries, negatively treated Christians and encouraged persecution of them, his ethical views, ideas about the mind and soul were close to the teachers of the Church and influenced Christian thinkers from blessed Jerome to L. N. . Tolstoy