Nigrinus

Furthermore, one has cause to admire philosophy when he beholds so much folly, and to despise the gifts of fortune when he sees on the stage of life a play of many réles, in which one man enters first as servant, then as master; another first as rich, then as poor; another now as beggar, now as nabob or king; another as So-and-so’s friend, another as his enemy ; another as an exile. And the strangest part of it all is that although Fortune attests that she makes light

of human affairs and admits that there is no stability in them, and in spite of the fact that men see this demonstrated every day, they still yearn for wealth and power, and go about every one of them full of unrealised hopes.