A Fig Tree Without Sap
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Ταῦτα οὕτως ὑπὸ τῶν τοιούτων πέφυκε γίνεσθαι ἐξ ἀνάγκης, ὁ δὲ τοῦτο μὴ θέλων θέλει τὴν συκῆν ὀπὸν μὴ ἔχειν. ὅλως δὲ ἐκείνου μέμνησο, ὅτι ἐντὸς ὀλιγίστου χρόνου καὶ σὺ καὶ οὗτος τεθνήξεσθε, μετὰ βραχὺ δὲ οὐδὲ ὄνομα ὑμῶν ὑπολειφθήσεται.
These things come about in this way, by the very nature of such people, of necessity; and one who does not wish this to happen wishes a fig tree to have no sap. In any case, remember this: that within the shortest time both you and this man will be dead, and after a little while not even your name will be left behind.
People of a certain character will act badly of necessity, as a fig tree bears sap; to demand otherwise is absurd. And in any case, both wronged and wrongdoer will soon be dead and forgotten.
Marcus applies a naturalist’s logic to the problem of other people’s bad behaviour. Given the character they have, such people act badly πέφυκε, "by nature," ἐξ ἀνάγκης, of necessity — their conduct follows from what they are as inevitably as sap follows from a fig tree. To wish they would not do it is therefore incoherent: it is to want the fig tree stripped of the very juice that makes it a fig tree. The image, homely and almost comic, cuts the ground from under indignation. You may work to change a person, but to be astonished or outraged that a person of that make acts in that way is to quarrel with the nature of things.
Then comes the second, colder consolation, one Marcus returns to constantly: the perspective of death. Within the shortest span both the man you resent and you who resent him will be dead, and soon after even your names will be gone, ὑπολειφθήσεται — nothing "left behind." Set against that vanishing, the offense shrinks to nothing. The two thoughts work together: the first tells him the wrong was inevitable and so not worth anger, the second that it is trivial and so not worth remembering. It is a compact instance of the whole book’s method — meet a specific irritation with a specific doctrine, and let it dissolve.
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Meditations 4.6 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/meditations-greek/4.6/