EPICTETUS. MANUAL. 25.
Sunday
April 26
IS anyone preferred before you at an entertainment, or in a compliment, or in being admitted
to a consultation? If these things are good, you
ought to rejoice that he hath got them; and if
they are evil, do not be grieved that you have
not got them. And remember that you cannot,
without using the same means to acquire things
not in our own power, expect to be thought worthy
of an equal share of them. For how can he who
doth not frequent the door of any man, doth not
attend him, doth not praise him, have an equal
share with him who doth? You are unjust, then,
and insatiable, if you are unwilling to pay the
price for which these things are sold, and would
have them for nothing.
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Summary: "You are insatiable if you are unwilling to pay the price for which fame and power are sold and would have them for nothing."
ReplyDeleteIt is the price which we pay for these fleeting things that reveals to us their real cost. We must give up the most valuable things, our integrity, our choice, our sense of justice. And having once achieved them, we are unable to keep them, as they may be pulled from our hands by the slightest change in markets or public opinion. The things we pay the most for, can often be the things which matter least.
http://musingsofastoicwoman.blogspot.ca/2013/04/i-s-anyone-preferred-before-you-at.html My blog post based on today's reading.
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