It isn't death, pain, exile or anything else you care to mention that accounts for the way we act, only our opinion about death, pain and the rest. - Epictetus

This is the true athlete—the person in rigorous training against false impressions. Remain firm, you who suffer, don’t be kidnapped by your impressions! The struggle is great, the task divine—to gain mastery, freedom, happiness, and tranquility.

You ought to realize, you take up very little space in the world as a whole — your body, that is; in reason, however, you yield to no one, not even to the gods, because reason is not measured in size but sense. So why not care for that side of you, where you and the gods are equals?

They made you responsible only for what is in your power – the proper use of impressions.