gh a price? For the sake of this that
men deem liberty, some hang themselves, others cast themselves down from
the rock; aye, time has been when whole cities came utterly to an end:
while for the sake of Freedom that is true, and sure, and unassailable,
dost thou grudge to God what He gave, when He claims it? Wilt thou not
study, as Plato saith, to endure, not death alone, but torture, exile,
stripes--in a word, to render up all that is not thine own? Else thou
wilt be a slave amid slaves, wert thou ten thousand times a consul; aye,
not a whit the less, though thou climb the Palace steps. And thou
shalt know how true the saying of Cleanthes, that though the words of
philosophers may run counter to the opinions of the world, yet have they
reason on their side.

CXLII

Asked how a man should best grieve his enemy, Epictetus replied, "By
setting himself to live the noblest life himself."

CXLIV

I am free, I am a friend of God, ready to render Him willing obedience.
Of all else I may set store by nothing--neither by mine own body, nor
possessions, nor office, nor good report, nor, in a word, aught else
beside. For it is not His Will, that I should so set store by these
things. Had it been His pleasure, He would have placed my Good therein.
But now He hath not done so: therefore I cannot transgress one jot of
His commands. In everything hold fast to that which is thy Good--but to
all else (as far as is given thee) within the measure of Reason only,
contented with this alone. Else thou wilt meet with failure, ill
success, let and hindrance. These are the Laws ordained of God--these
are His Edicts; these a man should expound and interpret; to these
submit himself, not to the laws of Masurius and Cassius.

CXLV

Remember that not the love of power and wealth sets us under the heel
of others, but even the love of tranquillity, of leisure, of change of
scene--of learning in general, it matters not what the outward thing
may be--to set store by it is to place thyself in subjection to another.
Where is the difference then between desiring to be a Senator, and
desiring not to be one: between thirsting for office and thirsting to
be quit of it? Where is the difference between crying, Woe is me, I know
not what to do, bound hand and foot as I am to my books so that I cannot
stir! and crying, Woe is me, I have not time to read! As though a book
were not as much an outward thing and independent of the will, as