Epictetus：Discourses and Enchiridion, Excerpt 41

For universally, be not deceived, every animal is attached to nothing so much as to its own interests. Whatever then appears to it an impediment to this interest, whether this be a brother, or a father, or a child, or beloved, or lover, it hates, spurns, curses; for its nature is to love nothing so much as its own interests: this is father, and brother, and kinsman, and country, and God. When then the gods appear to us to be an impediment to this, we abuse them and throw down their statues and burn their temples, as Alexander ordered the temples of Aesculapius to be burned when his dear friend died.

Source： https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10661
Locator：Excerpt 41 · Verified：2026-10-19 · Verification：Short excerpt

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