We can never completely defeat all the misfortunes that threaten us. But if we spread our sails too wide, we'll feel the force of every wind that hits us. We need to keep our affairs simple and small. That way, fortune's arrows can't find their mark. Sometimes small troubles actually help us. And lighter problems can cure bigger ones. When your mind won't listen to good advice and gentle methods don't work, then maybe poverty, disgrace, or financial ruin are exactly what it needs. One evil cancels out another. So let's learn to eat dinner without needing all of Rome to watch us. Let's have fewer slaves to serve us. Let's get clothes that actually serve their purpose. Let's live in smaller houses. Take the inside track — not just in races at the circus, but in the race of life.
We never can so thoroughly defeat the vast diversity and malignity of misfortune with which we are threatened as not to feel the weight of many gusts if we offer a large spread of canvas to the wind: we must draw our affairs into a small compass, to make the darts of Fortune of no avail. For this reason, sometimes slight mishaps have turned into remedies, and more serious disorders have been healed by slighter ones. When the mind pays no attention to good advice, and cannot be brought to its senses by milder measures, why should we not think that its interests are being served by poverty, disgrace, or financial ruin being applied to it? one evil is balanced by another. Let us then teach ourselves to be able to dine without all Rome to look on, to be the slaves of fewer slaves, to get clothes which fulfil their original purpose, and to live in a smaller house. The inner curve is the one to take, not only in running races and in the contests of the circus, but also in the race of life.