Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 9.36 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.36
The rottenness of the matter which is the foundation of everything! Water, dust, bones, filth: or again, marble rocks, the callosities of the earth; and gold and silver, the sediments; and garments, only bits of hair; and purple dye, blood; and everything else is of the same kind. And that which is of the nature of breath is also another thing of the same kind, changing from this to that.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.36, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/9.36
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesBreak the things people prize into what they are made of and they look unimpressive: marble is hard lumps of earth, gold and silver are sediment, fine clothes are animal hair, and royal purple is shellfish blood. Seeing the humble stuff behind luxury and status makes it easier to stop craving it.
Older wording
- “callosities”
- — hard lumps, here the rocky crust of the earth
- “purple dye”
- — costly royal dye made from shellfish
Themes and situations
- Wealth and poverty
- Simplicity and frugality
- Desire and craving
- Change and impermanence
- Money, status and wanting more
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