First, you must clean up your mind and this way of life. You should say: "My job is to work on my thinking, like wood is the carpenter's material or leather is the shoemaker's. My business is using my impressions correctly. My body means nothing to me. Its parts mean nothing to me. Death? Let it come when it wants — death of my whole body or just a part. You tell me to run away. But where? Can anyone kick me out of the world? They can't. Wherever I go, the sun is there. The moon is there. The stars are there. Dreams, signs, and conversations with the gods are there."
In the first place then you must make your ruling faculty pure, and this mode of life also. Now (you should say), to me the matter to work on is my understanding, as wood is to the carpenter, as hides to the shoemaker; and my business is the right use of appearances. But the body is nothing to me: the parts of it are nothing to me. Death? Let it come when it chooses, either death of the whole or of a part. Fly, you say. And whither; can any man eject me out of the world? He cannot. But wherever I go, there is the sun, there is the moon, there are the stars, dreams, omens, and the conversation ([Greek: omilia]) with gods.