Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 7.44 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.44
From Plato: But I would make this man a sufficient answer, which is this: Thou sayest not well, if thou thinkest that a man who is good for anything at all ought to compute the hazard of life or death, and should not rather look to this only in all that he does, whether he is doing what is just or unjust, and the works of a good or a bad man.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.44, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/7.44
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesAnyone worth anything should not calculate the risk to their own life or safety when acting, but only ask whether the act is right or wrong and what a good or bad person would do. Rightness comes before survival.
Older wording
- “compute the hazard”
- — calculate the risk
Themes and situations
- Courage
- Virtue and character
- Duty and roles
- Death and mortality
- An ethical dilemma
- A hard decision
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