The author of 《沉思录》 was the former emperor of Roma (161-180 B.C.). He is well known as the ruler-philosopher, and one of a few good emperors in the long history of Roman empire. Despite his showing of justice and wisdom during his reign, Roman empire still fell to ruins. The reason is very simple: there were huge corruptions and countless number of dictators that the Roman system itself could not eliminate. The outcome of the Roman empire's ruin is democracy. But it still took Europeans another 2000 years to finally set up real democratic systems. I hope that Primer 温家宝 would go beyond the petty words in 《沉思录》and the petty personal feelings on “请看看那些所谓的伟大的人物，他们现在都到哪里里去？都烟消云散了。有的成为故事，有的甚至连半个故事都算不上。” The real lesson he should learn is to set a democratic society for China. Otherwise, he would be another author for a Chinese (and much lousy) version of《沉思录》