Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 7.35 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.35
From Plato: The man who has an elevated mind and takes a view of all time and of all substance, dost thou suppose it possible for him to think that human life is anything great? it is not possible, he said.—Such a man then will think that death also is no evil.—Certainly not.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.35, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/7.35
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesA mind that takes in all of time and all of existence cannot think a single human life is a big deal, and so cannot think death is an evil. Zooming out shrinks both the importance of one life and the terror of its end.
Older wording
- “elevated mind”
- — a lofty, large-souled mind
- “substance”
- — matter, everything that exists
Themes and situations
- Death and mortality
- Nature and the cosmos
- Fear and anxiety
- Fear of death
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