Education should be approached with this goal in mind: ‘How can I personally follow the gods always, and how can I adapt to God’s government, and so be free?’ Freedom, you see, is having events go in accordance with our will, never contrary to it.
Well – is freedom the same as madness? Of course not. Madness and freedom are poles apart. ‘But I want my wishes realized, never mind the reason behind them.’ Now, that’s madness, that’s insanity. Freedom is something good and valuable; to arbitrarily wish for things to happen that arbitrarily seem to you best is not good, it’s disgraceful.
Epictetus. Discourses I.12.8-12
