Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 9.10 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.10
Both man and God and the universe produce fruit; at the proper seasons each produces it. But if usage has especially fixed these terms to the vine and like things, this is nothing. Reason produces fruit both for all and for itself, and there are produced from it other things of the same kind as reason itself.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.10, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/9.10
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesEverything in nature, people included, bears fruit in its proper season, and the fruit of reason is good done for everyone, yourself included, which in turn breeds more reasonableness. The point is not to be fussy about the word fruit.
Themes and situations
- Nature and the cosmos
- Community and our duty to others
- Virtue and character
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