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Monday, October 8, 2018

Epictetus, Golden Sayings 16


He that has grasped the administration of the World, who has learned that this Community, which consists of God and men, is the foremost and mightiest and most comprehensive of all—that from God have descended the germs of life, not to my father only and father's father, but to all things that are born and grow upon the earth, and in a special manner to those endowed with Reason (for those only are by their nature fitted to hold communion with God, being by means of Reason conjoined with Him)—why should not such a one call himself a citizen of the World? 

Why not a son of God? Why should he fear anything that comes to pass among men? Shall kinship with Caesar, or any other of the great at Rome, be enough to hedge men around with safety and consideration, without a thought of apprehension?

While to have God for our Maker, and Father, and Kinsman, shall not this set us free from sorrows and fears?

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