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Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §6.1.1

The Compliant Substance and the Harmless Governing Reason

Passage 138 of 486 · Greek

Summary

The substance of the universe is compliant, and the governing reason has no malice or cause to do harm. All things are created and completed in accordance with this reason.

§6.1.1Ἡ τῶν ὅλων οὐσία εὐπειθὴς καὶ εὐτρεπής, ὁ δὲ ταύτην διοικῶν λόγος οὐδεμίαν ἐν ἑαυτῷ αἰτίαν ἔχει τοῦ κακοποιεῖν· κακίαν γὰρ οὐκ ἔχει οὐδέ τι κακῶς ποιεῖ οὐδὲ βλάπτεταί τι ὑπ’ ἐκείνου.
The substance of the whole is docile and adaptable; and the reason which governs it has in itself no cause for doing evil, for it has no malice, nor does it do anything harmfully, nor is anything harmed by it.
πάντα δὲ κατ’ ἐκεῖνον γίνεται καὶ περαίνεται.
And all things come into being and are completed according to it.

Notes

  1. 6.1.1τοῦ κακοποιεῖν — A genitive infinitive modifying the noun αἰτίαν, expressing the objective content of the "cause" ("cause for doing evil").
  2. 6.1.1ὑπ’ ἐκείνου — The preposition ὑπό with the genitive case indicates the agent of the passive verb βλάπτεται. The demonstrative pronoun ἐκείνου refers back to the governing logos (reason).

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §6.1.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:6.1.1

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