Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 12.31 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.31
What dost thou wish? to continue to exist? Well, dost thou wish to have sensation? movement? growth? and then again to cease to grow? to use thy speech? to think? What is there of all these things which seems to thee worth desiring? But if it is easy to set little value on all these things, turn to that which remains, which is to follow reason and god. But it is inconsistent with honouring reason and god to be troubled because by death a man will be deprived of the other things.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.31, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/12.31
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesGo through what you would actually lose by dying: existing, sensing, moving, growing, speaking, thinking. None is worth much, and what really matters, following reason, is not lost by dying. So being upset that death will deprive you of other things contradicts honouring reason.
Themes and situations
- Death and mortality
- Desire and craving
- Virtue and character
- Fear and anxiety
- Fear of death
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