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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: walk in the mud, to tread on thorns, and sometimes even to be cut
off, for the benefit of the whole body; else it is no longer a
foot. In some such way we should conceive of ourselves also. What
art thou?--A man.--Looked at as standing by thyself and
separate, it is natural for thee in health and wealth long to
live. But looked at as a Man, and only as a part of a Whole, it
is for that Whole's sake that thou shouldest at one time fall
sick, at another brave the perils of the sea, again, know the
meaning of want and perhaps die an early death. Why then repine?
Knowest thou not that as the foot is no more a foot if detached
from the body, so thou in like case art no longer a Man? For what
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |
