Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 6.40 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.40
Every instrument, tool, vessel, if it does that for which it has been made, is well, and yet he who made it is not there. But in the things which are held together by nature there is within and there abides in them the power which made them; wherefore the more is it fit to reverence this power, and to think, that, if thou dost live and act according to its will, everything in thee is in conformity to intelligence. And thus also in the universe the things which belong to it are in conformity to intelligence.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 6.40, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/6.40
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesA tool works well when it does what it was made for, even though its maker is long gone. In living things the creative power stays inside them, so honour it and live by its will, and everything in you will line up with intelligence, as the universe does.
Older wording
- “conformity”
- — agreement or alignment
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
- Virtue and character
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