Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 7.50 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.50
That which has grown from the earth to the earth, But that which has sprung from heavenly seed, Back to the heavenly realms returns. This is either a dissolution of the mutual involution of the atoms, or a similar dispersion of the unsentient elements.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.50, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/7.50
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesA verse about what comes from earth returning to earth and what comes from heaven returning there, followed by a physical gloss that this is just atoms or lifeless elements coming apart. It is cosmology and speculation about the nature of death rather than practical advice.
Older wording
- “dissolution”
- — breaking apart
- “unsentient”
- — without awareness or feeling
Themes and situations
- Death and mortality
- Nature and the cosmos
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