did belong to
man, it would not be right for a man to despise them and to set himself
against them; nor would a man be worthy of praise who snowed that he did
not want these things, nor would he who stinted himself in any of them
be good, if indeed these things were good. But now the more of these
things a man deprives himself of, or of other things like them, or even
when he is deprived of any of them, the more patiently he endures the
loss, just in the same degree he is a better man.

16. Such as are thy habitual thoughts, such also will be the character
of thy mind; for the soul is dyed by the thoughts. Dye it then with a
continuous series of such thoughts as these: for instance, that where a
man can live, there he can also live well. But he must live in a palace;
well then, he can also live well in a palace. And again, consider that
for whatever purpose each thing has been constituted, for this it has
been constituted, and towards this it is carried; and its end is in that
towards which it is carried; and where the end is, there also is the
advantage and the good of each thing. Now the good for the reasonable
animal is society; for that we are made for society has been shown
above.[A] Is it not plain that the inferior exists for the sake of the
superior? But the things which have life are superior to those which
have not life, and of those which have life the superior are those which
have reason.

[A] ii. 1.

17. To seek what is impossible is madness: and it is impossible that the
bad should not do something of this kind.

18. Nothing happens to any man which he is not formed by nature to bear.
The same things happen to another, and either because he does not see
that they have happened, or because he would show a great spirit, he is
firm and remains unharmed. It is a shame then that ignorance and conceit
should be stronger than wisdom.

19. Things themselves touch not the soul, not in the least degree; nor
have they admission to the soul, nor can they turn or move the soul: but
the soul turns and moves itself alone, and whatever judgments it may
think proper to make, such it makes for itself the things which present
themselves to it.

20. In one respect man is the nearest thing to me, so far as I must do
good to men and endure them. But so far as some men make themselves
obstacles to my proper acts, man becomes to me one of the things which
are indifferent, no less than the sun or wind or a wild beast. N