'Meditations' is a collection of aphoristic thoughts by Marcus Aurelius, written by him in Greek (koine) in the 70s of the 2nd century during the war on the Danube frontier. It enjoyed undoubted success in late antiquity, and in the 16th century it was revived in European philosophical circles.

These personal notes reflect the emperor's persistent desire not only to be guided in his worldview by the teachings of the Stoics, but also to develop them further — naming not the soul, but the mind, as the leading principle in man, which must be brought into agreement with the nature of the whole, thus achieving dispassion.