Those are amusing persons, he said,
who take great pride in the things which are not under our control.
A man says, ”I am better than you ; for I have many estates,
and you are half-dead with hunger.”
Another says, “I am a consular.”
Another, ”I am a procurator”
Another, ” I have thick curly hair”
But one horse does not say to another horse,
“I am better than you, for I have quantities of fodder,
and a great deal of barley, and my bridles are of gold,
and my saddle-cloths are embroidered,” but
“I can run faster than you can.”
And every creature is better or worse
because of its own particular virtue or vice.
Can it be, then, that man is the only creature without a special virtue,
but he must have recourse to his hair, and his clothes, and his grandsires ?

Epictetus