Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 3.13 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 3.13
As physicians have always their instruments and knives ready for cases which suddenly require their skill, so do thou have principles ready for the understanding of things divine and human, and for doing everything, even the smallest, with a recollection of the bond which unites the divine and human to one another. For neither wilt thou do anything well which pertains to man without at the same time having a reference to things divine; nor the contrary.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 3.13, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/3.13
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesKeep your principles ready to hand the way a doctor keeps instruments ready for emergencies, so you can handle any situation, even small ones, with a sense of how people and the wider world fit together.
Older wording
- “things divine and human”
- — the divine order and human affairs
Themes and situations
- Preparing for difficulty
- Learning and progress
- Nature and the cosmos
- Virtue and character
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