With regard to whatever objects either delight the
mind, or contribute to use, or are tenderly beloved,
remind yourself of what nature they are, beginning
with the merest trifles: if you have a favorite cup,
that it is but a cup of which you are fond, - for thus,
if it is broken, you can bear it; if you embrace your
child, or your wife, that you embrace a mortal, - and
thus, if either of them dies, you can bear it.
The Works of Epictetus: His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments. Epictetus. Thomas Wentworth Higginson. translator. New York. Thomas Nelson and Sons. 1890.
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