Status Updates From Le Manuel d’Épictète

Si te cuentan que han hablado mal de ti, no te entretengas en justificarte, y responde solamente: "Ese tal no ha conocido mis demás defectos, porque entonces habría hablado mucho peor de mí."

XXIV: consider first what the matter is and what your own nature is able to bear... for different people are made for different things... You must watch, you must labor, you must get the better of certain appetites, must quit your acquaintances... You must be one man, either good or bad.

passage XXIV

XXII : "For remember that, if you are persistent, those very persons who at first ridiculed will afterwards admire you. But if you are conquered by them, you will incur a double ridicule."