Straight from today’s Quotle — here’s who really said it, and the story behind it. Play again

Who really said it

Loss is nothing else than change. But the universal nature delights in change

Written by Marcus Aurelius 121–180 AD · Roman emperor and Stoic philosopher
Verified Free to reuse

This is a real sentence from the Meditations, Book IX, section 35. The exact English wording is George Long’s 1862 translation, and it appears word for word in the text of Long’s Book IX — Marcus himself wrote the twelve books in Koine Greek, so the phrasing you see is Long’s rendering of his thought.

Last verified 4 Aug 2026 · how we verify · spot an error?

For presentations

Put it on a slide

Verified quote & credit

“Loss is nothing else than change. But the universal nature delights in change” Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book IX, 35, translated by George Long (1862). Verified via quotle.info

Can you use it?

Free to use, including in commercial and paid presentations — no permission or licence needed.

Image direction — grounded in this quote’s real context; paste into your image tool

In context

Evoking the world of Marcus Aurelius — Roman emperor 161–180 · Stoic philosopher. Theme: "Loss is nothing else than change. But the universal nature delights in change". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Minimalist

Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "Loss is nothing else than change. But the universal nature delights in change". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.

Provenance

Meditations, Book IX, 35

Work
Meditations (Ta eis heauton, “To Himself”)
Location
Book IX, section 35
Translation
George Long, first published 1862; text here from the Little, Brown edition of 1889
Original language
Koine Greek

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 in like form, and will be such to time without end. What, then, dost thou say,—that all things have been and all things always will be bad, and that no power has ever been found in so many gods to rectify these things, but the world has been condemned to be bound in never ceasing evil? Meditations IX.35

Long’s English, as printed in the Wikisource text of the 1889 Little, Brown edition. Marcus wrote the passage in Koine Greek; MIT’s Internet Classics Archive carries the same Long translation with a handful of trivial typographic differences.

Read Book IX in George Long’s translation on Wikisource

How this was verified

  • Wikisource’s text of George Long’s Book IX ↗ numbers the passage 35 and prints the quoted sentence word for word; its edition header gives the translator as George Long and the printing as Little, Brown and Company, 1889.
  • MIT’s Internet Classics Archive text of Book Nine ↗, credited to George Long, carries the identical passage — an independent copy of the same translation.
  • Wikipedia’s article on the Meditations ↗ dates George Long’s translation to 1862 and notes that Marcus wrote the twelve books in Koine Greek as a source for his own guidance, unlikely ever intended for publication.
  • A later rendering, A. S. L. Farquharson’s (1944) ↗, numbers the same passage 35 in Book 9 but words it differently — confirming the section while showing how much of the familiar phrasing belongs to Long.
Public domain

The Koine Greek original is ancient and long out of copyright, and the English shown here is George Long’s translation, first published in 1862 and reprinted by Little, Brown in 1889 — comfortably public domain in the United States. Note that this status attaches to Long’s wording specifically: later translations of the same section, such as Farquharson’s of 1944, are separate works with their own rights.

Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.

Fact-check

The author is right — the wording is the thing to watch

Marcus Aurelius is one of the internet’s most abused bylines, so it is worth saying plainly: this one is his. What travels loosely is not the credit but the phrasing, because the sentence has to pass through a translator before it reaches English.

“Loss is nothing else but change, and change is Nature’s delight.” condensed variant

This tighter version is by far the most-shared form online, and it is not Long’s sentence. It circulates without a translator or a book-and-section number — Goodreads ↗ credits it only to “Meditations,” and The Quotations Page ↗ names no translator, book or section either.

Any English wording presented as Marcus’s own words translation, not transcript

Marcus wrote the Meditations in Koine Greek, as Wikipedia’s article on the work ↗ states. The English here is George Long’s; Farquharson’s 1944 translation ↗ renders the very same section 35 in noticeably different words.

The thought is genuinely Marcus Aurelius’s, and this exact English sentence is George Long’s 1862 translation of Meditations Book IX, 35 ↗.

Context

An emperor arguing himself out of despair

The line is not a consolation card. It sits inside a rebuttal. In Book IX Marcus is answering the thought that the world is a rigged, rotten place — and the sentence about loss is the premise he uses to knock that thought down: if what we call loss is only matter changing shape, then the universe is not destroying anything, it is rearranging it.

The Meditations were written in Koine Greek as private notes for his own guidance, and Wikipedia’s article on the work states it is unlikely Marcus ever intended them to be published. So the tone is not lecture but self-address — a man reminding himself of something he keeps forgetting.

Loss is nothing else than change.

What the rest of section 35 actually says

Long’s Book IX, 35 continues past the famous opening: “in obedience to her all things are now done well, and from eternity have been in like form, and will be such to time without end.” The passage then turns rhetorical — would you really claim that all things always have been and always will be bad, and that no power among so many gods was ever found to fix it?

Because Marcus wrote in Greek, every English version of this sentence is a translator’s choice of words. Long (1862) gives “the universal nature delights in change”; A. S. L. Farquharson’s 1944 rendering of the same numbered section words it differently. Both are the same passage, 9.35.

Explore

Filed under

More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.

Change Resilience Mortality

Go further

Dig deeper

Trusted places to keep pulling the thread — primary archives, fact-checks, and scholarship. We show how we used each one before you leave.

Meditations, Book IX (trans. George Long)en.wikisource.org

Wikisource’s text of Long’s translation, from the 1889 Little, Brown edition — section 35 is the quote, verbatim.
The Meditations, Book Nineclassics.mit.edu

MIT’s Internet Classics Archive text of Book 9, credited to George Long, carrying the same sentence.
Meditations (the work)en.wikipedia.org

Confirms the twelve books were written in Koine Greek for his own use, and dates George Long’s translation to 1862.
Marcus Aureliusen.wikipedia.org

Life dates (26 April 121 – 17 March 180), reign 161–180, and his choice to write his inmost thoughts in Greek.
Meditations, Book 9 (trans. Farquharson)en.wikisource.org

A. S. L. Farquharson’s 1944 translation of the same numbered section 35 — useful for seeing how much of the famous wording is the translator’s.
Ad Se Ipsum, Book 9 (Greek)perseus.tufts.edu

Perseus Digital Library’s Greek text of Book 9, with chapter 35 as a linkable section.

The author

About Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius

26 April 121 – 17 March 180 · Roman emperor 161–180 · Stoic philosopher

Marcus Aurelius ruled Rome from 161 until his death in 180, and spent much of that reign on campaign rather than in the capital. The notebooks we call the Meditations were written in Koine Greek as, in Wikipedia’s phrase, a source for his own guidance and self-improvement — it is unlikely he ever meant them to be published. That is exactly why they read the way they do: not arguments aimed at an audience, but an emperor talking himself down from grief, anger and self-importance.

For writers & researchers

Cite this

Meditations IX.35, trans. George Long

Marcus Aurelius. The Thoughts of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus. Translated by George Long. Boston: Little, Brown, and Company, 1889. Book IX, sec. 35. Long’s translation was first published in 1862.

This verification page

Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘Loss is nothing else than change. But the universal nature delights in change’?” Last verified 4 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/loss-is-nothing-else-than-change-but-the-universal-nature/

Something wrong on this page?

Tell us what’s off. A link helps but isn’t required — “this is the wrong person” is a useful report on its own. Nothing here changes the page directly; it goes to our review queue and a human checks it.

Only used to tell you if we act on your report. We never sell or share it.

Copied