Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 7.10 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.10
Everything material soon disappears in the substance of the whole; and everything formal [causal] is very soon taken back into the universal reason; and the memory of everything is very soon overwhelmed in time.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.10, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/7.10
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesEverything material soon dissolves back into the universe, everything formal soon returns to the universal reason, and the memory of every person and thing is quickly buried by time.
Older wording
- “formal”
- — to do with the shape or organising principle of a thing
- “substance”
- — the matter of the universe
Themes and situations
- Change and impermanence
- Death and mortality
- Time and the present
- Reputation and others' opinions
- Fear of death
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