Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 7.69 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.69
The perfection of moral character consists in this, in passing every day as the last, and in being neither violently excited nor torpid nor playing the hypocrite.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.69, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/7.69
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesGood character means spending each day as though it were your last, without frantic excitement, sluggishness or pretence.
Older wording
- “torpid”
- — sluggish, lifeless
Themes and situations
- Virtue and character
- Time and the present
- Emotions and the passions
- Death and mortality
- Feeling life is slipping by
- Procrastination
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