Amor fati. Marcus Aurelius 5.8

Why does Marcus love his fate? Why does he believe that each of us has the moral duty to embrace our own fate with affection, with gratitude even? Here he explains his reasons for this hard position, which not everyone has found tenable (witness Epicurus, for one prominent ancient dissenter).

Ὁποῖόν τί ἐστι τὸ λεγόμενον, ὅτι· συνέταξεν ὁ Ἀσκληπιὸς τούτῳ ἱππασίαν ἢ ψυχρολουσίαν ἢ ἀνυποδησίαν, τοιοῦτόν ἐστι καὶ τό· συνέταξε τούτῳ ἡ τῶν ὅλων φύσις νόσον ἢ πήρωσιν ἢ ἀποβολὴν ἢ ἄλλο τι τῶν τοιούτων. καὶ γὰρ ἐκεῖ τὸ συνέταξε τοιοῦτόν τι σημαίνει· ἔταξε τούτῳ τοῦτο ὡς κατάλληλον εἰς ὑγίειαν, καὶ ἐνταῦθα τὸ συμβαῖνον ἑκάστῳ τέτακταί πως αὐτῷ (‡) κατάλληλον εἰς τὴν εἱμαρμένην. οὕτως γὰρ καὶ συμβαίνειν αὐτὰ ἡμῖν λέγομεν ὡς καὶ τοὺς τετραγώνους λίθους ἐν τοῖς τείχεσιν ἢ ἐν ταῖς πυραμίσι συμβαίνειν οἱ τεχνῖται λέγουσι, συναρμόζοντας ἀλλήλοις τῇ ποιᾷ συνθέσει. ὅλως γὰρ ἁρμονία ἐστὶ μία καὶ ὥσπερ ἐκ πάντων τῶν σωμάτων ὁ κόσμος τοιοῦτον σῶμα συμπληροῦται, οὕτως ἐκ πάντων τῶν αἰτίων ἡ εἱμαρμένη τοιαύτη αἰτία συμπληροῦται. νοοῦσι δὲ ὃ λέγω καὶ οἱ τέλεον ἰδιῶται· φασὶ γάρ· «τοῦτο ἔφερεν αὐτῷ». οὐκοῦν τοῦτο τούτῳ ἐφέρετο καὶ τοῦτο τούτῳ συνετάττετο· δεχώμεθα οὖν αὐτὰ ὡς ἐκεῖνα (‡) ὁ Ἀσκληπιὸς συντάττει. πολλὰ γοῦν καὶ ἐν ἐκείνοις ἐστὶ τραχέα, ἀλλὰ ἀσπαζόμεθα τῇ ἐλπίδι τῆς ὑγιείας.

τοιοῦτόν τί σοι δοκείτω ἄνυσις καὶ συντέλεια τῶν τῇ κοινῇ φύσει δοκούντων, οἷον ἡ σὴ ὑγίεια, καὶ οὕτως ἀσπάζου πᾶν τὸ γινόμενον, κἂν ἀπηνέστερον δοκῇ, διὰ τὸ ἐκεῖσε ἄγειν, ἐπὶ τὴν τοῦ κόσμου ὑγίειαν καὶ τὴν τοῦ Διὸς εὐοδίαν καὶ εὐπραγίαν. οὐ γὰρ ἂν τοῦτό τινι ἔφερεν, εἰ μὴ τῷ ὅλῳ συνέφερεν· οὐδὲ γὰρ ἡ τυχοῦσα φύσις φέρει τι, ὃ μὴ τῷ διοικουμένῳ ὑπ’ αὐτῆς κατάλληλόν ἐστιν. οὐκοῦν κατὰ δύο λόγους στέργειν χρὴ τὸ συμβαῖνόν σοι· καθ’ ἕνα μέν, ὅτι σοὶ ἐγίνετο καὶ σοὶ συνετάττετο καὶ πρὸς σέ πως εἶχεν, ἄνωθεν ἐκ τῶν πρεσβυτάτων αἰτίων συγκλωθόμενον· καθ’ ἕτερον δέ, ὅτι τῷ τὸ ὅλον διοικοῦντι τῆς εὐοδίας καὶ τῆς συντελείας καὶ νὴ Δία τῆς συμμονῆς αὐτῆς καὶ τὸ ἰδίᾳ εἰς ἕκαστον ἧκον αἴτιόν ἐστι. πηροῦται γὰρ τὸ ὁλόκληρον, ἐὰν καὶ ὁτιοῦν διακόψῃς τῆς συναφείας καὶ συνεχείας ὥσπερ τῶν μορίων, οὕτω δὴ καὶ τῶν αἰτίων· διακόπτεις δέ, ὅσον ἐπὶ σοί, ὅταν δυσαρεστῇς, καὶ τρόπον τινὰ ἀναιρεῖς.

Consider the following tale. Asclepius (†) bade one of his patients to ride horseback, take cold baths, and go barefoot. That was his prescription. But then the nature of all things ordained that this patient suffer illness, fever, wasting, and other bad symptoms. The series of these events shows something significant about the order of our lives: divine instructions show us what things conduce to our health, generally, and then events show how these things become our fate, as individuals. In this way, we can affirm that our fate resembles that of squared stones set in walls or pyramids: as the craftsmen say, the process of joining such stones together renders them congruent to a shape not their own. The harmony of the universe is singular and total, such that our world becomes one body from all the different bodies that exist. Even so does fate arise, as one universal cause or reason that is the sum of all others. Even total idiots know what I'm getting at here, for they have a saying: “That's what fate gave.” So fate gave, and a prescription was made, too. Let us accept both things, the event and the order, as the will of Asclepius. For though they appear at odds here, and not in our favor, nevertheless we embrace and cling fast to our hope of health.

Let this example of nature's finished work, as it appears consummated in the world, become an occasion for improving your own health. Greet every event with good cheer, even those that seem hard to bear, for this reason: that it conduces in time to the health of the universe, the welfare and success sacred to Zeus. For fate would not give anything to one of us without also giving it to the totality that includes us all. Nor does nature bear any chance or accident but what she has rendered fit and fitting to each life she holds. Thus, there are two reasons why you must love what happens to you. In the first place, because the fortune you inherit—your station in life and the condition in which it holds you—comes down to you from above as a garment woven from the most ancient causes on nature's loom. Secondly, because it imparts order to the governing principle of the universe—the seat of cosmic welfare and perfection and coherence, by Zeus!—as well as your own life, whose little, private causes are bound up in its great and universal one. For the whole is always maimed if you sever the connection and communion of its parts, and the cause of the universe falters on the dissolution of each smaller cause. Whenever you reject and deny the events of your life, you strike through the bonds that hold the world, and yourself, together.

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(‡) Farquharson inserts another ὡς here to emphasize how this clause fits into the period. Later in the passage (same mark), he inserts ἃ with similar intention.

(†) Asclepius was the god of medicine in ancient Greece. He was a son of Apollo, the Olympian god of healing and plagues, and bore a staff encircled by snakes (like the caduceus of Hermes). Ancient traditions assign many children to him and his wife Epione, among them two medically expert heroes of the Iliad (Machaon & Podalirius) and several nymphs with pointed names (cf. Suda, s.v. Epione): Hygieia (health), Aegle (blooming), Iaso (healing), Aceso (painkiller), & Panacea (universal cure). His temples were kept by priests whose oracles dispensed cures like the one Marcus mentions. Worshippers would bring their ailment to the temple, receive a prescription, and occasionally return to give thanks & make offerings when it proved successful.