Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 5.29 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.29
As thou intendest to live when thou art gone out,… so it is in thy power to live here. But if men do not permit thee, then get away out of life, yet so as if thou wert suffering no harm. The house is smoky, and I quit it. Why dost thou think that this is any trouble? But so long as nothing of the kind drives me out, I remain, am free, and no man shall hinder me from doing what I choose; and I choose to do what is according to the nature of the rational and social animal.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 5.29, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/5.29
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesLive now as you intend to live beyond this life, and if circumstances truly make a decent life impossible you may leave it calmly, without feeling wronged. Until then you stay free by doing what suits a rational, social being, which nobody can stop you from choosing.
Older wording
- “get away out of life”
- — leave life, that is, die by one's own choice
Themes and situations
- Freedom
- Death and mortality
- Courage
- Acceptance and fate