#epictetus

You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.

"You become what you give your attention to."

You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.

[Zeus] has provided each of us with an individual guardian deity, which stays by our side and is in charge of looking after us - a guardian who never sleeps and is impossible to distract. Is there any guardian to whose care he could have committed us that is better or more vigilant? Whenever you close your doors and turn out your lights, remember, never say to yourself that you are alone; you're not. God is inside, and so is your private deity, and neither of them requires a light to watch you by.

"What would have become of Hercules if there had been no lion, hydra, stag or boar? No savage criminals to rid the world of? What would he have done in the absence of such challenges? Obviously he would have just rolled over in bed and gone back to sleep. By snoring his life away in luxury and comfort he never would have developed into the mighty Hercules. And what good would it have done him? What would have been the use of those arms, that physique, and that noble soul, without conditions to stir him into action?"