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: on the road shall he await for protection? Such and such a
wealthy man, of consular rank? And how shall I be profited, if he
is stripped and falls to lamentation and weeping? And how if my
fellow-traveller himself turns upon me and robs me? What am I to
do? I will become a friend of Caesar's! in his train none will do
me wrong! In the first place--O the indignities I must endure to
win distinction! O the multitude of hands there will be to rob
me! And if I succeed, Caesar too is but a mortal. While should it
come to pass that I offend him, whither shall I flee from his
presence? To the wilderness? And may not fever await me there?
What then is to be done? Cannot a fellow-traveller be found that
 The Golden Sayings of Epictetus |