Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (a.d. 121–180) succeeded his adoptive father as emperor of Rome in a.d. 161—and in his Meditations he provides insights, wisdom, and practical guidance on everything from living in the world to coping with adversity to interacting with others. It’s surprising how much of his advice has aged well but given his position of supreme power and the changing times (eg. slavery is bad), some of his meditations have not aged so well.

I recently read Marcus Aurelius’s Meditations (translated by Gregory Hays) and I quite enjoyed it. Some of his ideas are still relevant today and others haven’t aged very well (which is not surprising given how far removed Marcus’s experience of life is from our own).

Overall, the text was interesting enough for me to be motivated to make this little toy that shows you one of the “meditations” every time you refresh the page (tip: if you click/tap on a word it’ll bring you to another meditation containing that word).