Remember that in life you ought to behave as at a banquet. Suppose that
something is carried round and is opposite to you. Stretch out your
hand and take a portion with decency. Suppose that it passes by you. Do
not detain it. Suppose that it is not yet come to you. Do not send your
desire forward to it, but wait till it is opposite to you. Do so with
respect to children, so with respect to a wife, so with respect to
magisterial offices, so with respect to wealth, and you will be some
time a worthy partner of the banquets of the gods. But if you take none
of the things which are set before you, and even despise them, then you
will be not only a fellow banqueter with the gods, but also a partner
with them in power. For by acting thus Diogenes and Heracleitus and
those like them were deservedly divine, and were so called.