I am poor, but I have a right opinion about poverty. Why, then, do I
care if they pity me for my poverty? I am not in power; but others
are: and I have the opinion which I ought to have about having and not
having power. Let them look to it who pity me; but I am neither hungry
nor thirsty nor do I suffer cold; but because they are hungry or
thirsty they think that I too am. What, then, shall I do for them?
Shall I go about and proclaim and say: "Be not mistaken, men, I am
very well, I do not trouble myself about poverty, nor want of power,
nor in a word about anything else than right opinions. These I have
free from restraint, I care for nothing at all." What foolish talk
is this? How do I possess right opinions when I am not content with
being what I am, but am uneasy about what I am supposed to be?
"But," you say, "others will get more and be preferred to me." What,
then, is more reasonable than for those who have laboured about
anything to have more in that thing in which they have laboured?
They have laboured for power, you have laboured about opinions; and
they have laboured for wealth, you for the proper use of
appearances. See if they have more than you in this about which you
have laboured, and which they neglect; if they assent better than
you with respect to the natural rules of things; if they are less
disappointed than you in their desires; if they fall less into
things which they would avoid than you do; if in their intentions,
if in the things which they propose to themselves, if in their
purposes, if in their motions toward an object they take a better aim;
if they better observe a proper behavior, as men, as sons, as parents,
and so on as to the other names by which we express the relations of
life. But if they exercise power, and you do not, will you not
choose to tell yourself the truth, that you do nothing for the sake of
this, and they do all? But it is most unreasonable that he who looks
after anything should obtain less than he who does not look after it.
"Not so: but since I care about right opinions, it more reasonable
for me to have power." Yes in the matter about which you do care, in
opinions. But in a matter in which they have cared more than you, give
way to them. The case is just the same as if, because you have right
opinions, you thought that in using the bow you should hit the mark
better than an archer, and in working in metal you should succeed
better than a smith. Give up, then, your earnestness about opinions
and employ yourself about the things which you wish to acquire; and
then lament, if you do not succeed; for you deserve to lament. But now
you say that you are occupied with other things, that you are
looking after other things; but the many say this truly, that one
act has no community with another. He who has risen in the morning
seeks whom he shall salute, to whom he shall say something
agreeable, to whom he shall send a present, how he shall please the
dancing man, how by bad behavior to one he may please another. When he
prays, he prays about these things; when he sacrifices, he
sacrifices for these things: the saying of Pythagoras

Let sleep not come upon thy languid eyes