Sublime

Epictetus believed that as powerless as humans were over their external conditions, they always retained the ability to choose how they responded.

what have they made you accountable for? Only for what lies within your power, the right use of your impressions. [35] Why do you charge yourself, then, with things for which you’re not accountable? You’re merely creating trouble for yourself.

Epictetus is reminding you that serenity and stability are results of your choices and judgment, not your environment.

For that is your business, to act the role that is assigned to you as well as you can; but it is another’s* part to select that role.

“Remember to conduct yourself in life as if at a banquet. As something being passed around comes to you, reach out your hand and take a moderate helping. Does it pass you by? Don’t stop it. It hasn’t yet come? Don’t burn in desire for it, but wait until it arrives in front of you. Act this way with children, a spouse, toward position, with

“We control our reasoned choice and all acts that depend on that moral will. What’s not under our control are the body and any of its parts, our possessions, parents, siblings, children, or country—anything with which we might associate.” —EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 1.22.10

are: he blames none, praises none, complains of none, accuses none, never speaks of himself as if he were somebody,