What, for instance, does it mean to be insulted? [29] Stand by a rock and insult it, and what have you accomplished? If someone responds to insult li… - Epictetus

If any of you are serious about being a friend, rid yourself of such attitudes, condemn them and drive them out of your mind. [35] That way, you won’t be hard on yourself, or be forever fighting, second-guessing and tormenting yourself. [36] And then you will be in a condition to befriend others – forming easy and natural relationships with like-minded people, but capable too of treating unenlightened souls with sympathy and indulgence, remembering that they are ignorant or mistaken about what’s most important. Never be harsh, remember Plato’s dictum: ‘Every soul is deprived of the truth against its will.’83

Keep the prospect of death, exile and all such apparent tragedies before you every day – especially death – and you will never have an abject thought, or desire anything to excess.

فرقٌ بين أن تدَّخر الخبز والنبيذ كما في مستودع، وبين أن تأكل. إن ما تأكله يُهضَم ويُتمَثَّل ويُصبح أعصابًا، لحمًا، عظامًا، دمًا، لونًا صحيًّا، نفسًا صِحِّيًّا.