Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 12.34 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.34
This reflection is most adapted to move us to contempt of death, that even those who think pleasure to be a good and pain an evil still have despised it.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.34, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/12.34
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesA reason to stop dreading death: even people who treat pleasure as the highest good and pain as the worst evil, who would seem to have the most to lose from dying, have still faced it with contempt.
Themes and situations
- Death and mortality
- Fear and anxiety
- Courage
- Pleasure and pain
- Fear of death
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