Not to be submerged in self-pity

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Another thing, of course, is that life will have terrible blows in it, horrible blows, unfair blows. And some people recover and others don’t.

And there I think the attitude of Epectitus is the best. He said that every missed chance in life was an opportunity to behave well, every missed chance in life was an opportunity to learn something, and that your duty was not to be submerged in self-pity, but to utilize the terrible blow in constructive fashion. That is a very good idea. You may remember the epitaph which Epectitus left for himself: “Here lies Epectitus, a slave maimed in body, the ultimate in poverty, and the favored of the gods.”

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