Reading the words of a Roman Emperor, a man who touched the lands of this planet 2000 years ago (121-180 b.c.), a man who, from what I have read, possessed a wisdom about life and nature that can be emphasized today, I find this fascinating. What life experiences he must have gone through to possess this calibre of thought.

Marco Aurelio emphasises the notion that everything has a beginning and everything has an end, all being part of the journey. He observes the people who preceded him and the people who succeeded him, to highlight the fact that human life, in the equation of eternity, is a grain of sand, he emphasises with being “smoke”. Due to this fact, he questions whether it is worth spending his time as a human being, since his life is insignificant. During this process, he makes a propaganda of how to live a good life, which, according to him, is the only thing we have left.

I can say with certainty that this book has changed the way I think and how I proceed in my daily life, in personal and professional matters. Thanks to it, that I have become a practitioner of stoicism.

I end up recommending this book to all kinds of people, because I believe that all of us have the philosophy, some more than others, but we do. Also because of the nature of the subject matter of the book, because, I assume, we should all want to live the best life possible, and this book helps create the right mindset to achieve it.