If you would improve, lay aside such reasonings as
these: "If I neglect my affairs, I shall not have a
maintenance; if I do not punish my servant, he will
be good for nothing." For it were better to die of
hunger, exempt from grief and fear, than to live in
affluence with perturbation; and it is better that your
servant should be bad than you unhappy.
[p. 2221]
Begin therefore with little things. Is a little oil
spilt or a little wine stolen? Say to yourself, "This
is the price paid for peace and tranquillity; and nothing is to be had for nothing." And when you call
your servant, consider that it is possible he may not
come at your call; or, if he does, that he may not do
what you wish. But it is not at all desirable for him,
and very undesirable for you, that it should be in his
power to cause you any disturbance.
The Works of Epictetus: His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments. Epictetus. Thomas Wentworth Higginson. translator. New York. Thomas Nelson and Sons. 1890.
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