Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 9.21 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.21
Termination of activity, cessation from movement and opinion, and in a sense their death, is no evil. Turn thy thoughts now to the consideration of thy life, thy life as a child, as a youth, thy manhood, thy old age, for in these also every change was a death. Is this anything to fear? Turn thy thoughts now to thy life under thy grandfather, then to thy life under thy mother, then to thy life under thy father; and as thou findest many other differences and changes and terminations, ask thyself, Is this anything to fear? In like manner, then, neither are the termination and cessation and change of thy whole life a thing to be afraid of.
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.21, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/9.21
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesThe ending of an activity or a stage of life is not an evil, and you have already come through many such endings, from childhood to youth to adulthood. Each earlier change was a small death you survived, so the ending of your whole life is no more frightening.
Older wording
- “termination”
- — ending
- “cessation”
- — stopping
Themes and situations
- Death and mortality
- Change and impermanence
- Fear and anxiety
- Ageing
- Fear of death
- Getting older
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