Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 3.8 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 3.8
In the mind of one who is chastened and purified thou wilt find no corrupt matter, nor impurity, nor any sore skinned over. Nor is his life incomplete when fate overtakes him, as one may say of an actor who leaves the stage before ending and finishing the play. Besides, there is in him nothing servile, nor affected, nor too closely bound to other things, nor yet detached from other things, nothing worthy of blame, nothing which seeks a hiding-place.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 3.8, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/3.8
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesA mind that has been disciplined and cleansed has nothing festering or hidden in it, so such a person's life is complete whenever death comes, like an actor who has finished his part. He is neither servile, fake, over-attached nor cold, and has nothing to hide.
Older wording
- “chastened”
- — disciplined and made humble
- “skinned over”
- — healed on the surface but still infected underneath
- “servile”
- — slavishly submissive
Themes and situations
- Virtue and character
- Death and mortality
- Acceptance and fate
- Freedom
- Fear of death
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