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So, just as the shoe is turned with the foot, and not the contrary, so do men’s dispositions make their lives like themselves. For it is not, as someoneA Pythagorean precept, Cf. Moralia, 602 b, 47 b-c, 123 c; probably not Democritus, as Hirzel (Hermes, xiv. 367) suggests, or Seneca, as Apelt in his translation of Plutarch supposes. has said, habituation which makes the best life sweet to those who have chosen it, but wisdom which makes the same life at once both best and sweetest. Therefore let us cleanse the fountain of tranquillity that is in our own selves, in order that external things also, as if our very own and friendly, may agree with us when we make no harsh use of them: It does no good to rage at circumstance; Events will take their course with no regard For us. But he who makes the best of those Events he lights upon will not fare ill.Euripides, Bellerophon, Frag. 287 (Nauck, Trag. Graec. Frag. ², p. 446); quoted also in De Vita et Poesi Homeri, 153 (Bernardakis, vol. vii. p. 424).
