Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 9.35 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.35
Loss is nothing else than change. But the universal nature delights in change, and in obedience to her all things are now done well, and from eternity have been done in like form, and will be such to time without end. What, then, dost thou say? That all things have been and all things always will be bad, and that no power has ever been found in so many gods to rectify these things, but the world has been condemned to be found in never ceasing evil?
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.35, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/9.35
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesLoss is nothing more than change, and change is how the world naturally works and always has worked, so it cannot be an unending disaster. To call every change bad is to claim that the whole of nature has been failing forever, which is hard to believe.
Older wording
- “universal nature”
- — the rational order of the whole cosmos
- “rectify”
- — put right
Themes and situations
- Acceptance and fate
- Change and impermanence
- Grief and mourning
- Nature and the cosmos
- Bereavement
- Losing a job
- Losing money
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