Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 6.1 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.1
The substance of the universe is obedient and compliant; and the reason which governs it has in itself no cause for doing evil, for it has no malice, nor does it do evil to anything, nor is anything harmed by it. But all things are made and perfected according to this reason.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.1, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/6.1
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesThe universe is cooperative stuff run by a reason that has no malice and harms nothing, and everything is shaped and completed by that reason. So nothing that happens is an act of cruelty aimed at you.
Older wording
- “substance”
- — the matter the universe is made of
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
- Acceptance and fate
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