Epictetus Enchiridion
Epictetus: Don't demand that things happen as you wish,…
Don't demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of the Enchiridion. The reading beside it is ours.
This is not a command to like everything that happens. It is an invitation to stop fighting reality after it has already arrived. A project is cancelled, traffic is stopped, a relationship ends, and your first impulse is to argue with the fact itself: This should not be happening. But the event does not become different because you resent it. Acceptance is the moment you stop spending energy on that unwinnable argument and start asking what the situation requires. You can wish for better outcomes and work for them. You can grieve, appeal, repair, and leave when it is wise. Yet peace begins when you meet the actual day rather than demanding an imaginary one. When plans change today, try replacing Why is this happening to me? with What is here now, and what is the best use of me in it?
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