"No, it is events that give rise to fear-when another has power over them or can prevent them, that person becomes able to inspire fear. How is the fortress destroyed? Not by iron or fire, but by judgments... here is where we must begin, and it is from this front that we must seize the fortress and throw out the tyrants." -EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 4.1.85-86; 87a
("아니요, 두려움은 사건들로부터 생겨납니다—다른 사람이 그 사건들에 대해 권력을 가지거나 그것들을 막을 수 있을 때, 그 사람은 두려움을 불러일으킬 수 있습니다. 요새는 어떻게 파괴됩니까? 철이나 불로가 아니라 판단으로... 우리가 시작해야 할 곳이 바로 여기이며, 이 전선에서 요새를 점령하고 폭군들을 몰아내야 합니다." -에픽테토스, 《담화록》 4.1.85-86; 87a)
The Stoics give us a marvelous concept: the Inner Citadel. It is this fortress, they believed, that protects our soul. Though we might be physically vulnerable, though we might be at the mercy of fate in many ways, our inner domain is impenetrable. As Marcus Aurelius put it (repeatedly, in fact), "stuff cannot touch the soul."
But history teaches us that ...