Q0038

Marcus Aurelius

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

The universe is change; life is opinion.
Thinker Marcus Aurelius
School Stoicism
Source Meditations IV.3
Theme Change
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Meditations IV.3, within the tradition of Stoicism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of change, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Marcus Aurelius's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Marcus Aurelius. (n.d.). The universe is change; life is opinion. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0038

MLA: Marcus Aurelius. “The universe is change; life is opinion..” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0038.

Chicago: Marcus Aurelius. “The universe is change; life is opinion..” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0038.

Same thinker

More from Marcus Aurelius

  1. Your mind will take the shape of what you frequently hold in thought, for the soul is dyed by its impressions.
  2. Begin the morning by saying to yourself: Today I shall meet the busybody, the ungrateful, the arrogant…
  3. Do not act as if you were going to live ten thousand years. Death hangs over you. While you live, while it is in your power, be good.
  4. If you are distressed by anything external, it is not the thing itself that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.
  5. What is not good for the hive is not good for the bee.

All quotations by Marcus Aurelius

Same theme

More on change

  1. Upon those who step into the same rivers, different and different waters flow.
  2. The art of progress is to preserve order amid change, and to preserve change amid order.
  3. For a conscious being, to exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
  4. I do not portray being. I portray passing.
  5. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.

Browse the change theme