1.30 What should we have at hand the help us in difficult circumstances?
[1] When you enter the presence of some powerful man, remember that there is another who is looking down from above on what is happening here, and that it is him whom you need to please rather than this man. [2] That other asks you, then, ‘What did you call exile, imprisonment, chains, death, and dishonour in your school?’—‘These I called matters of indifference.’ [3] —‘So what do you call them on the present occasion? Have they changed in any way?’—‘No they haven’t.’—‘And have you yourself changed?’—‘No.’—‘Tell me, then, what is meant by matters of indifference, and what follows from that?’—‘They’re things that lie outside the sphere of choice, and they’re nothing to me.’ [4] —‘Tell me further, what were the things that you regarded as being “goods”?’—‘The right exercise of choice and right use of impressions.’—‘And what is the end?’—‘To follow God.’ [5] —‘And do you say the same on the present occasion too?’—‘Yes, I say the same even now.’
Then make your way in with confidence, keeping all of this in mind, and you will see what it means for a young man who has undertaken proper philosophical training to appear among people who haven’t. [6] I for my part am inclined to suppose, by the gods, that you will have some such feelings as these: ‘Why have we made such great and elaborate preparations for nothing whatever? [7] Is this what power amounted to?
Is that all that the antechamber, chamberlains, and armed guards meant? Was it for this that I listened to so many lectures? It is really nothing at all, and yet I prepared for it as though it were something of great consequence.’