How, then, shall one preserve intrepidity and tranquillity; and at the same time be careful, and neither rash nor indolent?
By imitating those who play at tables. The dice are indifferent; the pieces are indifferent. How do I know what will fall out? But it is my business to manage carefully and dexterously whatever doth fall out. Thus in life, too, this is the chief business; distinguish and separate things, and say, "Externals are not in my power, choice is. Where shall I seek good and evil? Within; in what is my own." But in what belongs to others, call nothing good, or evil, or profit, or hurt, or anything of that sort.
EPICTETUS. DISCOURSES. Book ii. §5. ¶1.
For me this passage really emphasizes the Stoic belief of Stewardship over Ownership. What we have isn't actually ours, but made our responsibility. It is our actions, our lives and how they are lived in reference to these things, that truly define us.
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