Discourses, That We Do not Strive to Use Our Opinions About Good and Evil

Epictetus — The Slave

What weighs us down and disturbs us? Nothing but our opinions. What else weighs down the person who leaves his friends and familiar places and old habits? Look at little children. When their nurse leaves them for a while, they cry. But give them a small cake and they forget their sadness. Do you want me to compare you to little children? No, by Zeus. I don't want you pacified by a small cake, but by right opinions. And what are these right opinions? The kind a person should study all day long. Don't let anything that isn't yours affect you — not your friends, not your location, not your gym, not even your own body. Remember the law of nature and keep it in front of your eyes.

Epictetus — The Slave Original

What then are the things which are heavy on us and disturb us? What else than opinions? What else than opinions lies heavy upon him who goes away and leaves his companions and friends and places and habits of life? Now little children, for instance, when they cry on the nurse leaving them for a short time, forget their sorrow if they receive a small cake. Do you choose then that we should compare you to little children? No, by Zeus, for I do not wish to be pacified by a small cake, but by right opinions. And what are these? Such as a man ought to study all day, and not to be affected by anything that is not his own, neither by companion nor place nor gymnasia, and not even by his own body, but to remember the law and to have it before his eyes.