Marcus Aurelius Quote on Kindness: The Firmness of the Gentle

Quote

"Be kind, but not weak: the gentleness of the strong is the highest strength, and the person who can be gentle without bending has mastered both the art of love and the art of firmness." — Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Books 4 and 11 (2nd century CE)

Author

Marcus Aurelius (121–180 CE) was Roman emperor from 161 to 180 CE and the last of the great Stoic philosophers. The tradition records that he was known for his gentleness, and the Meditations develop the Stoic account of kindness.

Source

The quotation gathers the passages on kindness and gentleness from Books 4 and 11 of the Meditations. The translation follows Gregory Hays's Modern Library edition (2002).

Context

The teaching belongs to the Stoic ethics of the common good and the discipline of action. The Stoic tradition has often been caricatured as cold, and Marcus is the refutation: the emperor who practiced the gentleness daily, who wept at the deaths of his children, who was merciful to his enemies. The Meditations develop the account: the kindness is the recognition of the common humanity — "we were made for cooperation, like feet, like hands, like eyelids" — and the gentleness is the strength of the one who does not need to prove the strength by the hardness.

Meaning

The quotation states the Stoic account of kindness with complete clarity. "Be kind" — the command: the kindness is the duty of the rational creature, the recognition of the kinship. "But not weak" — the correction: the kindness is not the softness, and the gentle is not the bending. "The gentleness of the strong is the highest strength" — the union: the strength that can afford the gentleness is the highest form of the strength — the power that does not need to demonstrate itself by the hardness. "The person who can be gentle without bending has mastered both the art of love and the art of firmness" — the completion: the mastery is double — the love that is not corrupted by the weakness, and the firmness that is not hardened by the strength. The quotation is the Stoic answer to the caricature of the cold Stoic, and it grounds the Stoic wisdom tradition's account of the virtues of the strong and gentle.

Related Wisdom

The quotation belongs to the Stoic ethics of kindness and compassion. Its account of the gentleness of the strong connects to the Stoic doctrine of the kinship of humanity and to the wider wisdom tradition's teaching on the union of the gentleness and the strength. The teaching is among the most quoted of the Stoic wisdom tradition.