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While the other reviewers wax eloquent on the topic of Marcus Aurelius and the incredibly insightful quality of his thinking, both neglect to mention C.R Haines actual translation, which, unless you know ancient Greek pretty well, is what you will actually spend your time reading. It is the fussiest, pseudo-archaic travesty of translation I have ever encountered. Never mind that the use of 'thee', 'thou' and the accompanying creaky verb forms have been out of vogue for over half a century, Haines mined the motherlode of obscurities and what I suppose is would-be poetic creativity. Thus you will encounter words like 'encairned', 'decensive', 'quotha', 'perforce', 'wroth', 'guerdon', and 'aye'(used like pepper throughout the text), all of which may be summed up in Haines' funniest quote,'Man, what art thou at?' It's hard to imagine that even in 1915 this translation did not seem ridiculously effete for a work of such practicality and clear sense! It is equally remarkable that Loeb had not modernized this turkey by 1987, anyway. If you want to consider the Greek text, this is the one to get. Otherwise you will find better and clearer English elsewhere!