Humanitext Reader

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §4.8.1

That What Does Not Harm Character Harms Not Life

Passage 58 of 486 · Greek

Summary

Asserts that whatever does not make a person worse than themselves does not worsen their life or harm them from without or within.

§4.8.1Ὃ χείρω αὐτὸν ἑαυτοῦ ἄνθρωπον οὐ ποιεῖ, τοῦτο οὐδὲ τὸν βίον αὐτοῦ χείρω ποιεῖ οὐδὲ βλάπτει οὔτε ἔξωθεν οὔτε ἔνδοθεν.
That which does not make a human being worse than himself, does not make his life worse either, nor does it harm him either from without or from within.

Notes

  1. §4.8.1χείρω αὐτὸν ἑαυτοῦ ἄνθρωπον — The comparative adjective χείρω (contracted from the masculine accusative singular χείρονα) functions as a predicate to ἄνθρωπον. ἑαυτοῦ is a genitive of comparison meaning 'than himself'. Together with the object ἄνθρωπον, they form a double accusative construction with the verb ποιεῖ.

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §4.8.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:4.8.1

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