Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 8.18 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.18
That which has died falls not out of the universe. If it stays here, it also changes here, and is dissolved into its proper parts, which are elements of the universe and of thyself. And these too change, and they murmur not.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.18, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/8.18
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesWhat dies does not leave the universe. It stays and is changed, broken down into the same elements that make up the world and you, and those elements keep changing too without complaint.
Older wording
- “murmur”
- — complain
- “dissolved”
- — broken down
Themes and situations
- Death and mortality
- Change and impermanence
- Nature and the cosmos
- Grief and mourning
- Bereavement
- Fear of death
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