Book XII 1. ALL those things, which thou prayest to attain by a roundabout way, thou canst have at once if thou deny them not to thyself; that is to say, if thou leave all the Past to itself and entrust the Future to Providence, and but direct the Present in the way of piety and justice: piety, that thou

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman Emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. Marcus Aurelius wrote the 12 books of the Meditations in Greek as a source for his own guidance and self-improvement. Meditations, the writings of "the philosopher" – as contemporary biographers called Marcus – are a significant source of the modern understanding of ancient Stoic philosophy.