You can’t control events, only your response — and that is enough to live well. Meditations is the Roman emperor’s private notebook, turning Stoicism into habits you can use.

Written as field notes, it coaches you to examine first impressions, pause before anger, discount praise and fear, remember death, and take the view from above. It urges service to the common good, doing the task at hand, and treating setbacks as raw material rather than injury. Unpolished and humane, it’s less a system than a companion for difficult days.

In a noisy, anxious century, this is compact training for steadiness, ethical leadership and freedom of mind — whether you run a team or simply your morning.