Source identified
Read & copy the quotation
“Pass then through this little space of time conformably to nature, and end thy journey in content, just as an olive falls off when it is ripe, blessing nature who produced it, and thanking the tree on which it grew.”
- Date
- c. 170
- English wording
- George Long — Translator · from Ancient Greek
Meaning of “Pass then through this little space of time…”
Marcus joins mortality with thankfulness: a completed life is imagined as a ripe fruit that leaves without complaint while acknowledging the nature and conditions that made its growth possible.
Where does it come from?
Meditations, Book IV, section 48 in George Long’s public-domain translation, Project Gutenberg #6920/#15877 tradition. The olive image follows a reflection on the shortness of life and frames gratitude as part of accepting mortality rather than denying loss.
