Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 8.34 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.34
If thou didst ever see a hand cut off, or a foot, or a head, lying anywhere apart from the rest of the body, such does a man make himself, as far as he can, who is not content with what happens, and separates himself from others, or does anything unsocial. Suppose that thou hast detached thyself from the natural unity—for thou wast made by nature a part, but now thou hast cut thyself off—yet here there is this beautiful provision, that it is in thy power again to unite thyself. God has allowed this to no other part, after it has been separated and cut asunder, to come together again. But consider the kindness by which he has distinguished man, for he has put it in his power not to be separated at all from the universal; and when he has been separated, he has allowed him to return and to be united and to resume his place as a part.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 8.34, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/8.34
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesPicture a severed hand, foot or head lying apart from the body: that is what you make of yourself when you resent what happens and cut yourself off from others. The good news is that you can rejoin the whole whenever you choose, a privilege no real severed limb has.
Older wording
- “asunder”
- — apart, into separate pieces
Themes and situations
- Community and our duty to others
- Acceptance and fate
- Kindness and forgiveness
- Nature and the cosmos
- Loneliness
- Family conflict
- Trouble with a friend
Quote cards
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