Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 7.1 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.1
What is badness? It is that which thou hast often seen. And on the occasion of everything which happens keep this in mind, that it is that which thou hast often seen. Everywhere up and down thou wilt find the same things, with which the old histories are filled, those of the middle ages and those of our own day; with which cities and houses are filled now. There is nothing new: all things are both familiar and short-lived.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.1, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/7.1
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesWhen something bad happens, remind yourself that it is the kind of thing you have seen many times before, throughout history and in cities and households today. Nothing here is new, and every such thing is familiar and short-lived, so it need not shock you.
Older wording
- “badness”
- — wrongdoing or moral evil
- “middle ages”
- — intermediate periods of history, not the medieval era
Themes and situations
- Preparing for difficulty
- Acceptance and fate
- Anger
- Change and impermanence
- Betrayal
- Being treated unfairly
- Anxiety about the future
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