Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 10.15 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.15
Short is the little which remains to thee of life. Live as on a mountain. For it makes no difference whether a man lives there or here, if he lives everywhere in the world as in a state [political community]. Let men see, let them know a real man who lives according to nature. If they cannot endure him, let them kill him. For that is better than to live thus as men do.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.15, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/10.15
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesLittle of your life remains, so live as though on a mountain apart from the crowd, treating the whole world as your community wherever you happen to be. Show people what a person who lives by nature looks like, and even if they cannot bear it and would destroy him for it, that is better than living the way most people do.
Older wording
- “state [political community]”
- — a city or community of fellow citizens
Themes and situations
- Death and mortality
- Virtue and character
- Courage
- Solitude and retreat
- Searching for meaning
- An ethical dilemma
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