Look for ideas that match what I'm telling you. Use them as your guide. Then you'll gladly avoid things that have such strong power to tempt and control us. But what if we create a philosophy that pushes us toward these tempting things instead? What if our philosophy actually makes us weaker against them? What happens then? Think about a piece of metalwork. Which part is better — the silver or the craftsmanship? A hand is made of flesh. But the hand's real value is in what it can do. There are three kinds of duties too: duties about whether something exists, duties about what kind of thing it is, and most important — the duties that lead and control everything else.
Seek for doctrines which are consistent with what I say, and by making them your guide you will with pleasure abstain from things which have such persuasive power to lead us and overpower us. But if to the persuasive power of these things, we also devise such a philosophy as this which helps to push us on towards them and strengthens us to this end, what will be the consequence? In a piece of toreutic art which is the best part? the silver or the workmanship? The substance of the hand is the flesh; but the work of the hand is the principal part (that which precedes and leads the rest). The duties then are also three: those which are directed towards the existence of a thing; those which are directed towards its existence in a particular kind; and third, the chief or leading things themselves.