Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 10.17 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.17
Constantly contemplate the whole of time and the whole of substance, and consider that all individual things as to substance are a grain of a fig, and as to time, the turning of a gimlet.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.17, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/10.17
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesKeep the whole of time and the whole of matter in view, and every individual thing shrinks to a fig seed in size and a twist of a drill in duration. This sense of scale helps cut your worries down to their true size.
Older wording
- “gimlet”
- — a small hand drill
- “substance”
- — matter, the physical stuff of the universe
Themes and situations
- Change and impermanence
- Time and the present
- Judgements and impressions
- Anxiety about the future
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