"
"But I have already mastered the second part; only I wished to stand
firm and unshaken--as firm when asleep as when awake, as firm when
elated with wine as in despondency and dejection."
"Friend, you are verily a God! you cherish great designs."
LXXIV
"The question at stake," said Epictetus, "is no common one; it is
this:--Are we in our senses, or are we not?"
LXXV
If you have given way to anger, be sure that over and above the evil
involved therein, you have strengthened the habit, and added fuel to
the fire. If overcome by a temptation of the flesh, do not reckon it
a single defeat, but that you have also strengthened your dissolute
habits. Habits and faculties are necessarily affected by the
corresponding acts. Those that were not there before, spring up: the
rest gain in strength and extent. This is the account which Philosophers
give of the origin of diseases of the mind:--Suppose you have once
lusted after money: if reason sufficient to produce a sense of evil
be applied, then the lust is checked, and the mind at once regains its
original authority; whereas if you have recourse to no remedy, you can
no longer look for this return--on the contrary, the next time it is
excited by the corresponding object, the flame of desire leaps up more
quickly than before.
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