But if you want to protect external things too — your fragile body, your small possessions, your reputation — then I suggest you start preparing right now for whatever it takes. Think about who will judge you and who opposes you. If you need to beg on your knees, then beg. If you need to cry, cry. If you need to moan, moan. Once you've made externals your master, then be a complete slave. Don't resist. Don't flip-flop between wanting to be a slave sometimes and free other times. Pick one with your whole mind: either be free or be a slave. Either be wise or ignorant. Either be a noble fighting cock or a worthless one. Either endure being beaten until you die, or give up immediately. Don't let yourself get hit many times and then surrender anyway. But if these choices disgust you, then decide right now: Where do you find good and evil? You find them where truth is. Where truth and nature are, that's where you find wisdom. Where truth is, that's where you find courage.
But if you wish to maintain externals also, your poor body, your little property, and your little estimation, I advise you to make from this moment all possible preparation, and then consider both the nature of your judge and your adversary. If it is necessary to embrace his knees, embrace his knees; if to weep, weep; if to groan, groan. For when you have subjected to externals what is your own, then be a slave and do not resist, and do not sometimes choose to be a slave, and sometimes not choose, but with all your mind be one or the other, either free or a slave, either instructed or uninstructed, either a well-bred cock or a mean one, either endure to be beaten until you die or yield at once; and let it not happen to you to receive many stripes and then to yield. But if these things are base, determine immediately. Where is the nature of evil and good? It is where truth is: where truth is and where nature is, there is caution: where truth is, there is courage where nature is.