Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 12.36 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.36
Man, thou hast been a citizen in this great state [the world]; what difference does it make to thee whether for five years [or three]? for that which is conformable to the laws is just for all. Where is the hardship then, if no tyrant nor yet an unjust judge sends thee away from the state, but nature who brought thee into it? the same as if a prætor who has employed an actor dismisses him from the stage.—“But I have not finished the five acts, but only three of them.”—Thou sayest well, but in life the three acts are the whole drama; for what shall be a complete drama is determined by him who was once the cause of its composition, and now of its dissolution: but thou art the cause of neither. Depart then satisfied, for he also who releases thee is satisfied.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 12.36, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/12.36
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesYou are a citizen of the world for however many years you get, and leaving it is no hardship when it is nature that sends you out, not a tyrant or a bad judge. Like an actor dismissed by the director, you may feel you only got through three of five acts, but the play is complete whenever its author says so. Depart content.
Older wording
- “prætor”
- — a Roman magistrate
- “dissolution”
- — ending or breaking up
Themes and situations
- Death and mortality
- Acceptance and fate
- Nature and the cosmos
- Fear and anxiety
- Fear of death
- Bereavement
- Getting older
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