Around fifty years after Seneca was writing, Epictetus reflected on life and death with his students in Nicopolis. In the records of those discussions Epictetus repeatedly describes life as a gift, something that has been given to us, but equally something that can be taken away. It does not belong to us but instead to the giver, Nature. Addressing this higher power, he says: Now you want me to leave the fair, so I go, feeling nothing but gratitude for having been allowed to share with you in the celebration. Life is an event, like a fair or a party, and like all such events it must come to an
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