Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 8.3 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.3
Alexander and Caius and Pompeius, what are they in comparison with Diogenes and Heraclitus and Socrates? For they were acquainted with things, and their causes [forms], and their matter, and the ruling principles of these men were the same. But as to the others, how many things had they to care for, and to how many things were they slaves?
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.3, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/8.3
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesFamous conquerors rank far below wise men like Diogenes, Heraclitus and Socrates, who understood things and shared the same sound inner principles. The powerful men had countless things to look after and were enslaved to all of them, so real freedom lies in needing little.
Older wording
- “ruling principles”
- — core guiding beliefs
- “causes”
- — the underlying causes or forms of things
Themes and situations
- Ambition and success
- Freedom
- Wealth and poverty
- Virtue and character
- Money, status and wanting more
- Envy and comparison
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