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What Would Stoics Do

Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE

Meditations 10.23 — Marcus Aurelius

Translation by George Long (1862)

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.23

Let this always be plain to thee, that this piece of land is like any other; and that all things here are the same with things on top of a mountain, or on the seashore, or wherever thou choosest to be. For thou wilt find just what Plato says, Dwelling within the walls of a city as in a shepherd’s fold on a mountain.
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.23 · tr. George Long (1862)Read in context →

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Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 10.23, tr. George Long (1862)

https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/10.23

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences

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AI-written notes

Any place is much like any other, so wherever you are, in a city, on a mountain or by the sea, you can find the same peace and carry on the same inner life. You can feel as much at home in a town as a shepherd does in his pen on a hillside.

Older wording

“fold”
— a pen for sheep

Themes and situations

  • Solitude and retreat
  • Exile and loss of home
  • Peace of mind
  • Nature and the cosmos
  • Moving away or exile

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