Skip to content
What Would Stoics Do

Marcus Aurelius · 121–180 CE

Meditations 9.5 — Marcus Aurelius

Translation by George Long (1862)

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.5

He often acts unjustly who does not do a certain thing; not only he who does a certain thing.
— Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.5 · tr. George Long (1862)Read in context →

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations 9.5, tr. George Long (1862)

https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/meditations/9.5

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

Read Book IX in context →

In plain English

AI-written notes

You can be unjust by failing to act as well as by acting. Standing by when you should step in, or leaving a duty undone, is a wrong too.

Themes and situations

  • Justice and fairness
  • Duty and roles
  • An ethical dilemma

Quote cards

The opening line of this passage as an image, with its citation — for sharing or keeping.