IS that shameful to you which is not your own act? Of which you are not the cause? Which hath happened to you by accident, like a fever, or the headache? If your parents were poor, or left others their heirs, or, though they are living, do not assist you, are these things shameful for you? Is this what you have learned from the philosophers? Have you never heard, that what is shameful is blamable; and what is blamable deserves to be blamed? Whom do you blame for an action not his own, which he hath not done himself?
EPICTETUS. DISCOURSES. Book iii. §26. ¶1.
SHAME doth not consist in not having anything to eat, but in not having reason enough to exempt you from fear and sorrow.
EPICTETUS. DISCOURSES. Book iii. §24. ¶7.
We must feel no shame at illness, deformity, or the circumstances of our birth. These are none of our own doing. The shame we should feel comes from our own actions or lack of them. We can make restitution as is possible and then move on with the conviction of living as virtuous a life as possible, constantly striving to correct our course as we sail on.
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