1001Philosophers

Lucretius vs Marcus Aurelius

Lucretius and Marcus Aurelius are the two great surviving voices of Hellenistic philosophical living, each representing one of the two schools that dominated the Roman world. Lucretius wrote the longest and most beautiful surviving Latin Epicurean work; Marcus Aurelius the most influential Stoic one.

At a glance

LucretiusMarcus Aurelius
Datesc. 99 BC – c. 55 BC121 – 180
NationalityRomanRoman
EraAncientAncient
Movements Epicureanism, Hellenistic Stoicism, Hellenistic
Profile Lucretius → Marcus Aurelius →

Where they agree

Both held that the highest task of philosophy is to free the mind from disturbance, both believed that fear of death is the source of much human misery, and both taught that careful natural philosophy dissolves anxieties grounded in superstition. Both produced works of unusual literary power.

Where they disagree

Lucretius's De Rerum Natura defends an Epicurean materialism: the world is atoms in void, the gods are unconcerned with us, the soul perishes with the body, and the highest good is freedom from disturbance through a moderate, friendly life. Marcus's Meditations defend a Stoic providentialism: the cosmos is a single rational whole, the gods govern it, the soul is a fragment of the cosmic logos, and the highest good is willing consent to nature's order. They agree that fear of death is irrational; they disagree on what makes it so.

Representative quotes

Lucretius

  • “What is food to one, is to others bitter poison.”

    Ut quod ali cibus est aliis fuat acre venenum.

  • “Pleasant it is, when over a great sea the winds trouble the waters, to gaze from shore upon another's tribulation.”

    Suave mari magno turbantibus aequora ventis e terra magnum alterius spectare laborem; non quia vexari quemquamst jucunda voluptas, sed quibus ipse malis careas quia cernere suave est.

  • “Life is one long struggle in the dark.”

    Omnis cum in tenebris praesertim vita laboret.

Marcus Aurelius

  • “Waste no more time arguing what a good man should be. Be one.”

    Μηκέθ᾽ ὅλως περὶ τοῦ οἷόν τινα εἶναι τὸν ἀγαθὸν ἄνδρα διαλέγεσθαι, ἀλλὰ εἶναι τοιοῦτον. | X, 16

  • “The universe is change; our life is what our thoughts make it.”

    The universe is flux, life is opinion.

  • “Confine yourself to the present.”

    VII, 29

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