How should you deal with difficult people like this slave? You're a slave yourself. Won't you put up with your own brother? He has Zeus as his ancestor. He's like a son from the same seeds, from the same divine family line. But if you've been given some higher position, will you immediately become a tyrant? Won't you remember who you are and who you're ruling? They are your relatives. They are your brothers by nature. They are children of Zeus. "But I bought them, and they didn't buy me." Do you see what you're focused on? You're looking down at the earth, at the grave, at these pathetic laws made by dead men. But you're not looking at the laws of the gods.
How then shall a man endure such persons as this slave? Slave yourself, will you not bear with your own brother, who has Zeus for his progenitor, and is like a son from the same seeds and of the same descent from above? But if you have been put in any such higher place, will you immediately make yourself a tyrant? Will you not remember who you are, and whom you rule? That they are kinsmen, that they are brethren by nature, that they are the offspring of Zeus? But I have purchased them, and they have not purchased me. Do you see in what direction you are looking, that it is towards the earth, towards the pit, that it is towards these wretched laws of dead men? but towards the laws of the gods you are not looking.