Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 7.14 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.14
Let there fall externally what will on the parts which can feel the effects of this fall. For those parts which have felt will complain, if they choose. But I, unless I think that what has happened is an evil, am not injured. And it is in my power not to think so.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.14, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/7.14
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesLet whatever happens strike the parts of you that can feel, and let them complain if they must. You are not truly harmed unless your mind judges the event to be an evil, and you have the power not to judge it that way.
Themes and situations
- Judgements and impressions
- What is in our control
- Pleasure and pain
- Resilience and endurance
- Illness or diagnosis
- Being criticised or insulted
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