All the world's a stage. Marcus Aurelius 6.42

Providence will make you a character in the drama of the world. You will accomplish what must be done, willy-nilly, but how you accomplish it is up to you. Do you want to fight against your role, to rail against it, to reject it even as you carry it out on the cosmic stage? Or would you like to make it the best expression of your character that you can? This decision is yours, and yours alone.

Πάντες εἰς ἓν ἀποτέλεσμα συνεργοῦμεν, οἱ μὲν εἰδότως καὶ παρακολουθητικῶς, οἱ δὲ ἀνεπιστάτως, ὥσπερ καὶ τοὺς καθεύδοντας, οἶμαι, ὁ Ἡράκλειτος ἐργάτας εἶναι λέγει καὶ συνεργοὺς τῶν ἐν τῷ κόσμῳ γινομένων. ἄλλος δὲ κατ’ ἄλλο συνεργεῖ, ἐκ περιουσίας δὲ καὶ ὁ μεμφόμενος καὶ ὁ ἀντιβαίνειν πειρώμενος καὶ ἀναιρεῖν τὰ γινόμενα· καὶ γὰρ τοῦ τοιούτου ἔχρῃζεν ὁ κόσμος. λοιπὸν οὖν σύνες εἰς τίνας ἑαυτὸν κατατάσσεις· ἐκεῖνος μὲν γὰρ πάντως σοι καλῶς χρήσεται ὁ τὰ ὅλα διοικῶν καὶ παραδέξεταί σε εἰς μέρος τι τῶν συνεργῶν καὶ συνεργητικῶν, ἀλλὰ σὺ μὴ τοιοῦτο μέρος γένῃ, οἷος ὁ εὐτελὴς καὶ γελοῖος στίχος ἐν τῷ δράματι, οὗ Χρύσιππος μέμνηται.

We all cooperate to one end. Some of us know this and pursue that end deliberately in our work, while others chase it haphazardly, like the sleeping craftsmen whom Heraclitus identifies as assistants to the process of events in our universe (†). Each of us contributes to the whole in a different way, even the abundantly capable man who complains every moment, and the defiant one who tries to oppose and annul whatever is happening. The cosmos is always using them to do its work, too. So, getting down to business: you understand the characters you are dealing with. The providence that rules the world will always use you well and to full advantage, making you one of its fellow craftsmen and associates. It's up to you to avoid becoming the kind of silly punch-line that makes folks laugh at the cosmic drama it produces, in the metaphor coined by Chrysippus (‡).

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(†) Marcus has referred to this doctrine of Heraclitus already (Notes 4.46; Diels-Kranz 1 & Marcovich 1).

(‡) Chrysippus of Soli (c. 279-206 BCE), the philosopher who headed the Athenian Stoa after Cleanthes.