3. When you shall see a man honored above others, or mighty in power, or otherwise esteemed, look to it that thou deem him not blessed, being carried away by the appearance. For if the essence of the Good be in those things that are in our own power, then neither envy nor jealousy have any place, nor thou thyself shalt not desire to be commander or prince or consul, but to be free. And to this there is one road—scorn of the things that are not in our own power. 4. Remember, it is not he that strikes or he that reviles that doth any man an injury, but the opinion about these things, that they are injurious. When, then, some one may provoke thee to wrath, know that it is thine own conception which hath provoked thee. Strive, therefore, at the outset not to be carried away by the appearance; for if thou once gain time and delay, thou wilt more easily master thyself. 5. Death and exile, and all things that appear dreadful, let these be every day before thine eyes. But Death most of all; for so thou wilt neither despise nor too greatly desire any condition of life. CHAPTER XXII. THAT A MAN IS SUFFICIENT TO HIMSELF. 1. If thou set thine heart upon philosophy, prepare straightway to be laughed at and mocked by many who will say, _Behold, he has suddenly come back to us a philosopher_; or, _How came you by that brow of scorn?_ But do thou cherish no scorn, but hold to those things that seem to thee the best, as one set by God in that place. Remember, too, that if thou abide in that way, those that first mocked thee, the same shall afterwards reverence thee; but if thou yield to them, thou shalt receive double mockery. 2. If it shall ever happen to thee to be turned to outward things in the desire to please some person, know that thou hast lost thy way of life. Let it be enough for thee in all things to _be_ a philosopher. But if thou desire also to seem one, then seem so to thyself, for this thou canst. CHAPTER XXIII. THAT EVERY MAN FULFILL HIS OWN TASK. 1. Let such thoughts never afflict thee as, _I shall live unhonored, and never be anybody anywhere_. For if lack of honor be an evil, thou canst no more fall into evil through another’s doings than into vice. Is it, then, of thy own doing to be made a governor, or invited to feasts? By no means. How, then, is this to be unhonored? How shouldst thou _never be anybody anywhere_, whom it behooves to be somebody only in the things that are in thine own power, wherein it lies with thee to be of the greatest worth? 2. _But I shall not be able to serve my friends._ How sayst thou? to serve them? They shall not have money from thee, nor shalt thou make them Roman citizens. Who, then, told thee that these were of the things that are in our power, and not alien to us? And who can give that which himself hath not?