Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 8.21 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.21
Turn it [the body] inside out, and see what kind of thing it is; and when it has grown old, what kind of thing it becomes, and when it is diseased. Short-lived are both the praiser and the praised, and the rememberer and the remembered: and all this in a nook of this part of the world; and not even here do all agree, no, not anyone with himself: and the whole earth too is a point.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.21, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/8.21
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesLook at the body without glamour, seeing what it is made of and how it ages and falls sick. Remember that whoever praises you, whoever is praised, and whoever remembers either are all short-lived, in a tiny corner of an Earth that is itself a speck, where not even one person agrees with themselves, so praise is worth little.
Older wording
- “nook”
- — a small corner
Themes and situations
- Death and mortality
- Reputation and others' opinions
- Ageing
- Change and impermanence
- Handling success
- Getting older
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