Loss is nothing else than change.
Genuine
Yes. In Meditations (180), Book 9, section 35.
Found word for word by program in the Greek original and in George Long’s English translation (1862).
- Work
- Meditations (Τὰ εἰς ἑαυτόν), 180
- Where
- Book 9, section 35
- Found at
- Paragraph 459 of the Greek text, 399 of the English
- Translation
- George Long, 1862
Researched by AI; checked by program against the full text on 31 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
On the page
[…] Imagine that thou seest their poor souls laid bare. When they think that they do harm by their blame or good by their praise, what an idea!
Τίνα τὰ ἡγεμονικὰ τούτων καὶ περὶ οἷα ἐσπουδάκασι καὶ δι’ οἷα φιλοῦσι καὶ τιμῶσι· γυμνὰ νόμιζε βλέπειν τὰ ψυχάρια αὐτῶν. ὅτε δοκοῦσι βλάπτειν ψέγοντες ἢ ὠφελεῖν ἐξυμνοῦντες, ὅση οἴησις.
Loss is nothing else than change. But the universal nature delights in change, and in obedience to her all things are now done well, and from eternity have been done in like form, and will be such to time without end. What, then, dost thou say? […]
Ἡ ἀποβολὴ οὐδὲν ἄλλο ἐστὶν ἢ μεταβολή. τούτῳ δὲ χαίρει ἡ τῶν ὅλων φύσις, καθ’ ἢν πάντα καλῶς γίνεται καὶ ἐξ αἰῶνος ὁμοειδῶς ἐγίνετο καὶ εἰς ἄπειρον τοιαῦθ̓ ἕτερα ἔσται. τί οὖν λέγεις ὅτι ἐγίνετό τε πάντα κακῶς καὶ πάντα ἀεὶ κακῶς ἔσται καὶ οὐδεμία ἄρα δύναμις ἐν τοσούτοις θεοῖς ἐξευρέθη ποτὲ ἡ διορθώσουσα ταῦτα, ἀλλὰ κατακέκριται ὁ κόσμος ἐν ἀδιαλείπτοις κακοῖς συνέχεσθαι;
The rottenness of the matter which is the foundation of everything! […]
Τὸ σαπρὸν τῆς ἑκάστῳ ὑποκειμένης ὕλης· ὕδωρ, κόνις, ὀστάρια, γράσος, ἢ πάλιν· πῶροι γῆς τὰ μάρμαρα καὶ ὑποστάθμαι ὁ χρυσός, ὁ ἄργυρος, καὶ τριχία ἡ ἐσθὴς καὶ αἷμα ἡ πορφύρα, καὶ τὰ ἄλλα πάντα τοιαῦτα. καὶ τὸ πνευμάτιον δὲ ἄλλο τοιοῦτον καὶ ἐκ τούτων εἰς ταῦτα μεταβάλλον.
Enough of this wretched life and murmuring and apish tricks. Why art thou disturbed? What is there new in this? What unsettles thee? Is it the form of the thing? Look at it. Or is it the matter? Look at it. […]
Ἅλις τοῦ ἀθλίου βίου καὶ γογγυσμοῦ καὶ πιθηκισμοῦ.—τί ταράσσῃ; τί τούτων καινόν; τί σε ἐξίστησι; τὸ αἴτιον; ἴδε αὐτό. ἀλλ’ ἡ ὕλη; ἴδε αὐτήν. ἔξω δὲ τούτων οὐδέν ἐστιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ πρὸς τοὺς θεοὺς ἤδη ποτὲ ἁπλούστερος καὶ χρηστότερος γενοῦ.
The scene
The opening of an entry in Book 9 that answers a complaint: if all things have always been and will always be bad, with no power among so many gods able to set them right, then the world is condemned to endless evil. Marcus presents this as the conclusion he rejects.
What it means
What looks like loss is the world’s own way of changing, and Marcus holds that this change is good.
Often misread
Used as a comfort for grief. Marcus is arguing about the order of the universe, not consoling a mourner.
Topics
Related quotes
- I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. Henry David Thoreau
- It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live. (paraphrase)
- There is only one truly serious philosophical problem: suicide. Albert Camus
- Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence. (paraphrase) Aristotle
- Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not. Epicurus
Sources
- standardebooks.org/ebooks/marcus-aurelius/meditations/george-long/text/single-page (George Long translation, first published 1862; corpus meditations.en.txt, line 399)
- cdn.jsdelivr.net/gh/PerseusDL/canonical-greekLit@70427323b61267cdcd0256b9b02009c23392de07/data/tlg0562/tlg001/tlg0562.tlg001.perseus-grc2.xml (Greek text; corpus meditations.el.txt, line 459)
- en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Marcus_Aurelius
Cite it
Marcus Aurelius, Meditations (180), Book 9, section 35, translated by George Long (1862). Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/loss-is-nothing-else-than-change/ (31 October 2026).
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