Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE
Meditations 9.39 — Marcus Aurelius
Translation by George Long (1862)
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.39
Either all things proceed from one intelligent source and come together as in one body, and the part ought not to find fault with what is done for the benefit of the whole; or there are only atoms, and nothing else than mixture and dispersion. Why, then, art thou disturbed? Say to the ruling faculty, Art thou dead, art thou corrupted, art thou playing the hypocrite, art thou become a beast, dost thou herd and feed with the rest?
Cite this passage
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.39, tr. George Long (1862)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/9.39
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, tr. George Long (1862). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesEither the universe is one ordered whole, in which case a part should not complain about what benefits the whole, or it is just atoms mixing and scattering, in which case there is nothing to be upset about either way. In both cases, challenge your own mind: are you dead, corrupted, pretending, or just following the herd like an animal?
Older wording
- “ruling faculty”
- — your reasoning mind
- “dispersion”
- — scattering apart
Themes and situations
- Acceptance and fate
- Nature and the cosmos
- Judgements and impressions
- Virtue and character
- Anxiety about the future
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