Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 5.14 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.14
Reason and the reasoning art [philosophy] are powers which are sufficient for themselves and for their own works. They move then from a first principle which is their own, and they make their way to the end which is proposed to them; and this is the reason why such acts are named catorthoseis or right acts, which word signifies that they proceed by the right road.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.14, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/5.14
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesGood reasoning needs nothing outside itself: it starts from its own principle and goes straight to its goal. That is why right actions earn a Greek name meaning acts that travel along the right road.
Older wording
- “catorthoseis”
- — Greek for perfectly right actions
Themes and situations
- Virtue and character
- Learning and progress
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