if there is a god, all is well; and if chance rules, do not thou be governed by it." - Meaning and context.">
QuotesCosmos
IX, 28
“

The universal intelligence puts itself in motion for every separate effect... or it puts itself in motion once, and everything else comes by way of a sequence in a manner; or individual elements are the origin of all things. In a word, if there is a god, all is well; and if chance rules, do not thou be governed by it.

— Marcus Aurelius

What It Means

This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "The universal intelligence puts itself in motion for every separate effect... or it puts itself in motion once, and everything else comes by way of a sequence in a manner; or individual elements are the origin of all things. In a word, if there is a god, all is well; and if chance rules, do not thou be governed by it." in the context of "IX, 28" to mean that wisdom is timeless.

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Source: Wikiquote: "Marcus Aurelius" (Quotes, Meditations (c. AD 121–180): (full text)There are many different translations of these, often with different nuances of interpretation and sometimes different arrangements., Book IX) The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app

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#Marcus Aurelius#itself#motion#puts#intelligence#everything#individual#universal#separate#sequence#elements#governed
Marcus Aurelius

About Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus (26 April 121 – 17 March 180) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 and a Stoic philosopher. He was the last of the rulers known as the Five Good Emperors (a term coined some 13 centuries later by Niccolò Machiavelli), and the last emperor of the Pax Romana (27 BC to 180), an age of relative peace and stability for the Roman Empire. He served as Roman consul in 140, 145, and 161.