“Do you not show a supercilious look; but hold on to the things which seem to you best as one appointed by God to this station. And remember that if you abide in the same principles, these men who first ridiculed will afterward admire you: but if you shall have been overpowered by them, you will bring on yourself double ridicule.”
“Be satisfied, then, in everything with being a philosopher; and if you wish to seem also to any person to be a philosopher, appear so to yourself, and you will be able to do this.”
“In every act observe the things which come first, and those which follow it; and so proceed to the act.”
“You must be one man, either good or bad.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
