November 10

HENCE depends every movement both of God and man ; and hence good is preferred to every obligation, however near. My connection is not with my father, but with good. — Are you so hard-hearted? — Such is my nature, and such is the coin which God hath given me. If, therefore, good is made to be anything but fair and just, away go father, and brother, and country, and everything. What! Shall I overlook my own good and give it up to you? For what? "I am your father." But not my good. "I am your brother." But not my good. But, if we place it in a right choice, good will consist in an observance of the several relations of life; and then, he who gives up some externals acquires good.

EPICTETUS. DISCOURSES. Book iii. §3. ¶2.