Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 4.39 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.39
What is evil to thee does not subsist in the ruling principle of another; nor yet in any turning and mutation of thy corporeal covering. Where is it then? It is in that part of thee in which subsists the power of forming opinions about evils. Let this power then not form such opinions, and all is well. And if that which is nearest to it, the poor body, is burnt, filled with matter and rottenness, nevertheless let the part which forms opinions about these things be quiet, that is, let it judge that nothing is either bad or good which can happen equally to the bad man and the good. For that which happens equally to him who lives contrary to nature and to him who lives according to nature, is neither according to nature nor contrary to nature.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.39, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/4.39
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesWhat counts as evil for you does not live in other people's minds or in what happens to your body, but in your own judgement about those things. If you stop judging events as bad, all is well, even when the body suffers, because what happens equally to good and bad people is neither good nor bad.
Older wording
- “corporeal covering”
- — your body
- “turning and mutation”
- — change and alteration
Themes and situations
- Judgements and impressions
- Adversity and hardship
- Illness and the body
- What is in our control
- Pleasure and pain
- Being criticised or insulted
- Betrayal
- Illness or diagnosis
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