We think too highly of ourselves when we imagine that massive upheavals happen just to harm us. None of these things actually happen to hurt us. In fact, they all work for our benefit. I've said that some things cannot hurt us, and some things would not hurt us. Good leaders, good parents, teachers, and judges fall into this second group. We should accept their punishments the same way we accept a surgeon's knife, fasting, and other painful things that help us. If we're being punished, let's think not only about what we're suffering, but about what we did wrong. Let's judge our past honestly. If we're willing to tell ourselves the truth, we'll realize our wrongdoing deserves harsher punishment than what we've received.
We think too much of ourselves, when we imagine that we are worthy to have such prodigious revolutions effected for our sake: so, then, none of these things take place in order to do us an injury, nay, on the contrary, they all tend to our benefit. I have said that there are some things which cannot hurt us, and some which would not. To the latter class belong good men in authority, good parents, teachers, and judges whose punishments ought to be submitted to by us in the same spirit in which we undergo the surgeon’s knife, abstinence from food, and such like things which hurt us for our benefit. Suppose that we are being punished; let us think not only of what we suffer, but of what we have done: let us sit in judgement on our past life. Provided we are willing to tell ourselves the truth, we shall certainly decide that our crimes deserve a harder measure than they have received.