Q0427

Marcus Aurelius

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Do not be troubled about whether the rest of life will be long or short, as if that mattered much.
Thinker Marcus Aurelius
School Stoicism
Source Meditations VIII.36
Theme Time
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Meditations VIII.36, 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 time, 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.). Do not be troubled about whether the rest of life will be long or short, as if that mattered much. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0427

MLA: Marcus Aurelius. “Do not be troubled about whether the rest….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0427.

Chicago: Marcus Aurelius. “Do not be troubled about whether the rest….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0427.

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. The universe is change; life is opinion.
  3. Begin the morning by saying to yourself: Today I shall meet the busybody, the ungrateful, the arrogant…
  4. 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.
  5. If you are distressed by anything external, it is not the thing itself that disturbs you, but your own judgment about it.

All quotations by Marcus Aurelius

Same theme

More on time

  1. Upon those who step into the same rivers, different and different waters flow.
  2. All else belongs to others; time alone is ours.
  3. Claim yourself for yourself.
  4. What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I do not know.
  5. The owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk.

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