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What Would Stoics Do

Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE

Meditations 7.74 — Marcus Aurelius

Translation by George Long (1862)

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.74

No man is tired of receiving what is useful. But it is useful to act according to nature. Do not then be tired of receiving what is useful by doing it to others.
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.74 · tr. George Long (1862)Read in context →

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Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 7.74, tr. George Long (1862)

https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/7.74

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences

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Nobody gets tired of receiving things that benefit them, and acting in line with your nature, which means helping others, is itself beneficial. So do not grow weary of being useful to people, because you gain from it too.

Themes and situations

  • Kindness and forgiveness
  • Community and our duty to others
  • Nature and the cosmos
  • Duty and roles

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