Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 5.13 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.13
I am composed of the formal and the material; and neither of them will perish into nonexistence, as neither of them came into existence out of nonexistence. Every part of me then will be reduced by change into some part of the universe, and that again will change into another part of the universe, and so on forever. And by consequence of such a change I too exist, and those who begot me, and so on forever in the other direction. For nothing hinders us from saying so, even if the universe is administered according to definite periods of revolution.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.13, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/5.13
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesNothing in you came from nothing or will vanish into nothing, since both your matter and your shape are simply reworked into other parts of the universe, as your ancestors were before you. Seeing yourself as one link in an endless chain of change can soften the fear of ending.
Older wording
- “the formal and the material”
- — your form or organising principle and the matter you are made of
Themes and situations
- Change and impermanence
- Nature and the cosmos
- Death and mortality
- Fear of death
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