Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet. As something is being passed around it comes to you; stretch out your hand and take a portion of it politely. It passes on; do not detain it. Or it has not come to you yet; do not project your desire to meet it, but wait until it comes in front of you. So act toward children, so toward a wife, so toward office, so toward wealth; and then some day you will be worthy of the banquets of the gods. But if you do not take these things even when they are set before you, but despise them, then you will not only share the banquet of the gods, but share also their rule. For it was by so doing that Diogenes and Heraclitus, and men like them, were deservedly divine and deservedly so called.

Commentary

Epictetus describes life as a metaphorical banquet of the gods. We should not grab at wealth and other external advantages greedily and try to hang on to them. Rather we should remember ourselves, and the bigger picture, taking only a reasonable portion, without becoming attached to things. We should not crave things we do not possess but be grateful for them when they come our way. We’d consider this polite behaviour, he says, at a banquet (symposium) where we’re mindful of our behaviour.