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What Would Stoics Do

Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE

Meditations 4.42 — Marcus Aurelius

Translation by George Long (1862)

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.42

It is no evil for things to undergo change, and no good for things to subsist in consequence of change.
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.42 · tr. George Long (1862)Read in context →

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Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.42, tr. George Long (1862)

https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/4.42

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences

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In plain English

AI-written notes

Change is not a bad thing in itself, and things continuing to exist after a change is not a good thing in itself either. Both are simply how nature works, so there is no reason to dread change.

Older wording

“subsist”
— continue to exist

Themes and situations

  • Change and impermanence
  • Nature and the cosmos
  • Acceptance and fate

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Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 4.42, tr. George Long (1862)