Pain is either an evil to the body--then let the body say what it thinks of it--or to the soul; but it is in the power of the soul to maintain its own serenity and tranquillity, and not to think that pain is an evil.
He argues that the soul has the power to remain undisturbed by physical pain, refusing to deem it an evil.
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Reflecting on all this, consider nothing to be great, except to act as thy nature leads thee, and to endure that which the common nature brings.
But everything else, whether it is in the power of thy will or not, is only lifeless ashes and smoke.
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