Humanitext Reader

Marcus Aurelius · Meditations §7.22.1

Loving Wrongdoers as the Distinctive Duty of Man

Passage 218 of 486 · Greek

Summary

Marcus Aurelius asserts that loving even those who do wrong is proper to human nature, and suggests this is possible by remembering their ignorance, our common mortality, and the fact that they cannot harm our ruling center.

§7.22.1Ἴδιον ἀνθρώπου φιλεῖν καὶ τοὺς πταίοντας.
It is proper to a human being to love even those who stumble.
τοῦτο δὲ γίνεται, ἐὰν συμπροσπίπτῃ σοι, ὅτι καὶ συγγενεῖς καὶ δι’ ἄγνοιαν καὶ ἄκοντες ἁμαρτάνουσι καὶ ὡς μετ’ ὀλίγον ἀμφότεροι τεθνήξεσθε, καὶ πρὸ πάντων, ὅτι οὐκ ἔβλαψέ σε· οὐ γὰρ τὸ ἡγεμονικόν σου χεῖρον ἐποίησεν ἢ πρόσθεν ἦν.
And this comes about if it occurs to you that they are your kinsmen, and that they do wrong through ignorance and involuntarily, and that in a short time both of you will be dead, and, above all, that he did not harm you; for he did not make your ruling center worse than it was before.

Notes

  1. §7.22.1συμπροσπίπτῃ — Meaning "to occur to" or "to strike one's mind." The following clauses introduced by ὅτι and ὡς function as the grammatical subjects of this verb, forming the conditional clause "if it occurs to you that..."
  2. §7.22.1τὸ ἡγεμονικόν — A Stoic technical term referring to the "ruling center" or the governing part of the soul (the rational self). It reflects the idea that whatever others do, one suffers no real harm as long as this part of oneself remains uncorrupted.

Cite this passage

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations §7.22.1. Humanitext Reader, https://reader.humanitext.ai/en/text/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0562.tlg001.humanitext-grc2:7.22.1

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