Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 9.33 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.33
All that thou seest will quickly perish, and those who have been spectators of its dissolution will very soon perish too. And he who dies at the extremest old age will be brought into the same condition with him who died prematurely.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.33, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/9.33
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesEverything you see will soon be gone, and so will the people who watched it go. Someone who lives to extreme old age ends up in the same state as someone who dies young, so the length of a life matters less than we assume.
Older wording
- “dissolution”
- — breaking up, destruction
Themes and situations
- Death and mortality
- Change and impermanence
- Ageing
- Grief and mourning
- Fear of death
- Bereavement
Quote cards
The opening line of this passage as an image, with its citation — for sharing or keeping.