"Give me a single man who is concerned with his way of acting, who pays his attention not only to the success of his act, but to his act itself. Who, then, walks, thinking of the very act which he is doing, and not merely of obtaining that which is the object of it? And if he obtains it, he boasts; he says '' As we deliberated well! As I said to you, my brother, it is impossible, when I examine a question, that there is no such issue. If the thing turns otherwise, it collapses, the unfortunate; he finds nothing to say about the event. "
The discourses - Epictetus, II, XVI
« Things themselves are indifferent; but the use of them is not indifferent. How then shall a man preserve firmness and tranquillity, and at the same time be careful and neither rash nor negligent? If he imitates those who play at dice. The counters are indifferent; the dice are indifferent. How do I know what the cast will be? But to use carefully and dexterously the cast of the dice, this is my business.(…) This is just what you will see those doing who play at ball skillfully. No one cares about the ball being good or bad, but about throwing and catching it. In this therefore is the skill, this the art, the quickness, the judgement, so that if I spread out my lap I may not be able to catch it, and another, if I throw, may catch the ball. »
The discourses - Epictetus, II, V