Epictetus, Golden Sayings 61

Why then are we afraid when we send a young man from the Schools into active life, lest he should indulge his appetites intemperately, lest he should debase himself by ragged clothing, or be puffed up by fine raiment? Knows he not the God within him? Knows he not with whom he is starting on his way? 

Have we patience to hear him say to us, would that I had you with me! Have you not God where you are, and having Him do you still seek for any other? Would He tell you anything else than these things? 

Why, were you a statue by Phidias, an Athena or a Zeus, you would think both of yourself and your maker; and had you any sense, you would strive to do no dishonor to yourself or him that fashioned you, nor appear to beholders in an unbefitting guise. 

But now, because God is your Maker, is that why you care not of what sort you shall show yourself to be? Yet how different the artists and their workmanship! What human artist's work, for example, has in it the faculties that are displayed in fashioning it? Is it anything but marble, bronze, gold, or ivory? 

No, when the Athena of Phidias has put forth her hand and received therein a Victory, in that attitude she stands for evermore. But God's works move and breathe; they use and judge the things of sense. The workmanship of such an Artist, will you dishonor Him? 

Yes, when he not only fashioned you, but placed you, like a ward, in the care and guardianship of yourself alone, will you not only forget this, but also do dishonor to what is committed to your care? 

If God had entrusted you with an orphan, would you have thus neglected him? He has delivered you to your own care, saying, I had none more faithful than myself. Keep this man for me such as Nature hath made him—modest, faithful, high-minded, a stranger to fear, to passion, to perturbation. . . . 

Such will I show myself to you all. 

"What, exempt from sickness also, from age, from death?" 

No, but accepting sickness, accepting death as becomes a God!