Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 4.23 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.23
Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonious to thee, O Universe. Nothing for me is too early nor too late, which is in due time for thee. Everything is fruit to me which thy seasons bring, O Nature: from thee are all things, in thee are all things, to thee all things return. The poet says, Dear city of Cecrops; and wilt not thou say, Dear city of Zeus?
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.23, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/4.23
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesWelcome whatever the universe brings, and whenever it brings it, since nothing arrives too early or too late for the whole. Treat every season of life as fruit from nature, and love the wider world the way a poet loves his own city.
Older wording
- “city of Cecrops”
- — Athens, named after its legendary first king
Themes and situations
- Acceptance and fate
- Nature and the cosmos
- Gratitude
- Time and the present
- Anxiety about the future
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