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24“The same thing I find to be true in regard to exile. It is a sojourn abroad involving disfranchisement; so that if disfranchisement in and of itself contains no evil, surely no evil can be attached to exile either. 2In fact, many live abroad anyway for very long periods, some unwillingly, but others willingly; and some even spend their whole life travelling about, just as if they were expelled from every place in turn; and yet they do not regard themselves as being injured in doing so. 3Nor does it make any difference whether a man does it voluntarily or not; the man who trains his body unwillingly is no less strong than he who does it willingly, and one who goes on a voyage unwillingly obtains no less benefit than another. And as regards this unwillingness itself, I do not see how it can exist with a man of sense. 4Accordingly, if the difference between being well and badly off is that we do some things readily and voluntarily, while we perform others unwillingly and grudgingly, the trouble can easily be remedied. For if we willingly endure all necessary things and allow none of them to conquer us, all those matters in which one might assume unwillingness have been done away with at a single stroke. 5There is, indeed, an old saying and a very good one, to the effect that we ought not to demand that whatever we wish should come to pass, but to wish for whatever does come to pass as the result of any necessity. For we neither have free choice in our manner of life nor are we our own masters; 6but according as it may suit chance, and according to the character of the fortune granted each one of us for the fulfilment of what is ordained, we must also shape our life.
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