Lettres à Lucilius Section 12

Quomodo ergo hoc ipsum nobis apparuit? Dicam. Numquam vir ille perfectus adeptusque virtutem fortunae maledixit, numquam accidentia tristis excepit, civem esse se universi et militem credens labores velut imperatos subiit. Quicquid inciderat, non tamquam malum aspernatus est et in se casu delatum, sed quasi delegatum sibi. Hoc qualecumque est, inquit, meum est; asperum est, durum est, in hoc ipso navemus operam.

Mais comment cette dernière image s’offrit-elle à nous ? Je vais le dire. Jamais ce mortel parfait, cet adepte de la vertu ne maudit la Fortune ; jamais il n’accueillit
les événements avec chagrin ; se regardant comme citoyen et soldat de l’humanité, à ses yeux tout labeur fut un commandement à subir. Quelque disgrâce qui survînt, il n’y vit point un mal à repousser, un accident qui le frappait ; il l’accepta comme une charge à lui dévolue.

How then did we discover this fact? I will tell you: that perfect man, who has attained virtue, never cursed his luck, and never received the results of chance with dejection; he believed that he was citizen and soldier of the universe, accepting his tasks as if they were his orders. Whatever happened, he did not spurn it, as if it were evil and borne in upon him by hazard; he accepted it as if it were assigned to be his duty. “Whatever this may be,” he says, “it is my lot; it is rough and it is hard, but I must work diligently at the task.”