Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 7.32 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.32
About death: Whether it is a dispersion, or a resolution into atoms, or annihilation, it is either extinction or change.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.32, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/7.32
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesWhatever death turns out to be, whether the scattering of the body, its breakdown into atoms, or complete nothingness, it is either an ending or a change. Neither possibility is a reason for dread.
Older wording
- “dispersion”
- — scattering
- “resolution into atoms”
- — breaking back down into basic particles
Themes and situations
- Death and mortality
- Nature and the cosmos
- Fear of death
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