Marcus Aurelius cuts through our fantasy of solitude here—we cannot simply opt out of other people, so we face a binary choice about our emotional stance toward them. The real sting lies in "endure," which isn't passive suffering but active tolerance, a deliberate decision to absorb friction without resentment. When your colleague repeats the same mistake for the third time, or your parent misunderstands your intentions yet again, you're not failing at some higher connection; you're fulfilling the baseline human contract by choosing endurance over bitterness. That distinction—between resignation and dignified forbearance—is what separates a life of quiet resentment from one of actual resilience.