QUOTE : In his Discourses, Epictetus imagines having a conversation with Zeus, in which Zeus explains his predicament in the following terms: “Epictetus, had it been possible I should have made both this paltry body and this small estate of thine free and unhampered. … Yet since I could not give thee this, we have given thee a certain portion of ourself, this faculty of choice and refusal, of desire and aversion.” He adds that if Epictetus learns to make proper use of this faculty, he will never feel frustrated or dissatisfied.26 He will, in other words, retain his tranquility—and even experience joy—despite the blows Fortune might deal him.