A wise man has no need to walk fearfully or step by step. So great is his self-confidence that he does not hesitate to confront Fortune, and will never give ground to her. He has no grounds for fearing her, because he counts among transitory things not only his property and possessions and social standing, but also his own body and his eyes and his hands and whatever else makes life particularly dear to a man, even his own self, and he lives as one who is on loan to himself and intends to return everything without complaint when the debt is recalled. He is not on this account worthless in his own eyes because he knows that he does not belong to himself, but he will do everything with all the care and scrupulousness that a devout and holy man is accustomed to show in looking after goods entrusted to his protection. But when the order comes for him to give them back, he will not remonstrate with Fortune, but will say: “I thank you for what I have possessed and kept. It has brought me considerable reward to manage your property, but, as this is your command, I give it up. I surrender it with gratitude and pleasure.”

From Seneca’s “On the Tranquility of the Mind” in Dialogues and Essays, translated by John Davie, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 129.