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Quotation

Last reviewed:

“Waste no more time arguing about what a good person should be. Be one.”

Paraphrase or translation

Marcus Aurelius · Stoicism · Ancient · c. 170–180 CE

What does it mean?

The mainstream reading is a rebuke to himself: defining the good person has become a way of postponing being one. A competing reading hears an attack on study as such, whereas he is scolding study that replaces the deed, in notes written by a man who already knew the arguments. The line is Meditations 10.16. Long's older English is stiffer and closer to the Greek; the familiar modern form is a fair compression of that rebuke.

Did Marcus Aurelius really say this?

The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Fair modern compression of a short Greek rebuke to himself. Long's older English is stiffer: 'No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.'

Where it comes from

Meditations 10.16

Approximate date: c. 170–180 CE.

How to use it

If you have discussed a standard more often than you have acted on it this month, the next step is an action small enough for today: the apology, the fair split, the hour you said you would give. Another article about the standard is not the step. The note on the page is an order to stop rehearsing.

A mindset reading

Study is not the enemy. Study that replaces the deed is what he is scolding in himself. The habit is to notice when a definition has become a waiting room, and to leave it by doing one thing the definition already named.

Understand the philosophy

The Meditations are self-address, and Marcus is answering his own fluency. 'Be one' means enact the virtuous person you can already describe: the philosophical content is Stoic virtue, and the literary form is an emperor refusing his own excuses. A reader who drops the study and keeps only the bark has kept the tone and lost the standard.

FAQ

What does it mean?

The mainstream reading is a rebuke to himself: defining the good person has become a way of postponing being one. A competing reading hears an attack on study as such, whereas he is scolding study that replaces the deed, in notes written by a man who already knew the arguments. The line is Meditations 10.16. Long's older English is stiffer and closer to the Greek; the familiar modern form is a fair compression of that rebuke.

Did Marcus Aurelius really say this?

Paraphrase or translation. Fair modern compression of a short Greek rebuke to himself. Long's older English is stiffer: 'No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such.'

Which work is it in?

Meditations 10.16 Approximate date: c. 170–180 CE.