The Handbook of Epictetus
Handbook 24.1
Translated by Clint Miller
Do not let thoughts like these crush you: “I will live without honor, a nobody, nowhere.” For if lack of honor is an evil, you cannot be in evil through another person, any more than you can be in disgrace through another. Is it your doing to obtain office, or to be invited to a dinner party? Not at all. How, then, is missing them a dishonor? And how will you be “a nobody, nowhere,” when you need to be somebody only in the things that are up to you – where you can be of the greatest worth?
οὗτοί σε οἱ διαλογισμοὶ μὴ θλιβέτωσαν «ἄτιμος ἐγὼ βιώσομαι καὶ οὐδεὶς οὐδαμοῦ.» εἰ γὰρ ἡ ἀτιμία ἐστὶ κακόν, οὐ δύνασαι ἐν κακῷ εἶναι δι’ ἄλλον, οὐ μᾶλλον ἢ ἐν αἰσχρῷ· μή τι οὖν σόν ἐστιν ἔργον τὸ ἀρχῆς τυχεῖν ἢ παραληφθῆναι ἐφ’ ἑστίασιν; οὐδαμῶς. πῶς οὖν ἔτι τοῦτ’ ἔστιν ἀτιμία; πῶς δὲ οὐδεὶς οὐδαμοῦ ἔσῃ, ὃν ἐν μόνοις εἶναί τινα δεῖ τοῖς ἐπὶ σοί, ἐν οἷς ἔξεστί σοι εἶναι πλείστου ἀξίῳ;