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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Golden Sayings of Epictetus by Epictetus: "Well, but if I do not act, I shall lose my head."
"Then go and act! But for my part I will not act."
"Why?"
"Because you think yourself but one among the many threads
which make up the texture of the doublet. You should aim at being
like men in general--just as your thread has no ambition either
to be anything distinguished compared with the other threads. But
I desire to be the purple--that small and shining part which
makes the rest seem fair and beautiful. Why then do you bid me
become even as the multitude? Then were I no longer the purple."
IX
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus | 
