degraded—miserable, tense, huddled, frightened? How
could there be?
- What humans experience is part of human experience.
The experience of the ox is part of the experience of oxen, as
the vine’s is of the vine, and the stone’s what is proper to
stones.
Nothing that can happen is unusual or unnatural, and
there’s no sense in complaining. Nature does not make us
endure the unendurable.
- External things are not the problem. It’s your assessment
of them. Which you can erase right now.
If the problem is something in your own character, who’s
stopping you from setting your mind straight?
And if it’s that you’re not doing something you think you
should be, why not just do it?
—But there are insuperable obstacles.Then it’s not a problem. The cause of your inaction lies
outside you.
—But how can I go on living with that undone?Then depart, with a good conscience, as if you’d done it,