There are two faults far graver and fouler than any others, inability to bear, and inability to forbear, when we neither patiently bear the blows that must be borne, nor abstain from the things and the pleasures we ought to abstain from. So, if a man will only have these two words at heart, bear and forbear, and heed them carefully by ruling and watching over himself, he will for the most part fall into no sin, and his life will be tranquil and serene. Epictetus. The Golden Sayings. Book 2. Number 183.
Image: Self-portrait as Sick Bacchus by Caravaggio, 1593, at the Louvre in Paris. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and The Louvre.
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