Reddit reviews Meditations (Penguin Classics)

The below is my favorite version


Meditations (Penguin Classics) https://www.amazon.com/dp/0140441409/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_lv.KDbT41KGJR

"If anyone can refute me— show me I’m making a mistake or looking at things from the wrong perspective— I’ll gladly change. It’s the truth I’m after, and the truth never harmed anyone. What harms us is to persist in self-deceit and ignorance."
Meditations, Number 21 Book 6 (Gregory Hays translation)

I actually got into a discussion with some folks about that quote; they were suggesting that it is a bit self-contradictory. Turns out the term "perspective" tends to bring in a modern sense of subjectivity that makes it seem self-contradictory (i.e. "are any perspectives wrong? Or just different ways of looking at the same thing?"). Not a debate Aurelius was intending there, I don't think. So, to supplement, below are the two other translations of the same bit, with less ambiguity there.

"If anyone can show me, and prove to me, that I am wrong in thought or deed, I will gladly change. I seek the truth, which never yet hurt anybody. It is only persistence in self-delusion and ignorance which does harm." Maxwell Staniforth translation

"If someone can prove me wrong and show me my mistake in any thought or action, I shall gladly change. I seek the truth, which never harmed anyone: the harm is to persist in one's on self-deception and ignorance." Martin Hammond translation (I picked this up at a used bookstore—can't find it on Amazon offhand...)

On the subject of translations, I'm no Greek scholar so I can't offer an informed opinion on which is most "accurate to intent." For easy reading I prefer the Gregory Hays one, and so it is the one I recommend to people interested in reading Meditations for the first time (and which is why it is the one I generally "quote"). But if you love Meditations is much as I do, my next recommendation would be to read every translation you can get your hands on.

EDIT: Links to books of each translation.

/u/ollobollo is correct - it is this version: https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Penguin-Classics-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0140441409

The first Meditations I ever owned! 99 cents from the used book store. :)

I'm currently reading the Penguin Classics version, translated by Maxwell Staniforth. I haven't read any other translation, so definitely see what others have to say, but I liked Staniforth's Translator's Note. In it, he discusses the earlier translations and how they're too archaic, too literary, or even too literally translated to be enjoyable.

He says, "It should be added that there is no attempt here to reproduce the curious prose style of the original. I have an idea that writing in Greek did not come very easily to Marcus the Roman; his expressions are often obscure, and he uses awkward and unusual constructions. At the same time his language has dignity . . . . I have aimed at nothing more than a plain and honest version for the Greekles reader."

Again, I can't say that this translation is the best, but I'm enjoying it, and feel like the tone suits the content.

https://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Penguin-Classics-Marcus-Aurelius/dp/0140441409