greatness of reason is measured not by height or length, but by the quality of its judgements. - Epictetus

[8] Yet if we place the good in right choice, the preservation of our relationships itself becomes a good. And besides, he who gives up certain external things achieves the good through that. [9] ‘My father’s depriving me of money.’ But he isn’t causing you any harm. ‘My brother is going to get the greater share of the land.’ Let him have as much as he wishes. He won’t be getting any of your decency, will he, or of your loyalty, or of your brotherly love? [10] For who can disinherit you of possessions such as those? Not even Zeus; nor would he wish to, but rather he has placed all of that in my own power, even as he had it himself, free from hindrance, compulsion, and restraint.

Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words.

It is a universal law — have no illusion — that every creature alive is attached to nothing so much as to its own self-interest.