"<p>Herodotus, who so delightfully gossips about Greeks, Persians, Medes, Lydians, the fate of the peoples and leaders of antiquity, advises us not to arbitrarily and artificially defy the fortune that flashes its star in our direction. Every ancient people, the Persians, the Babylonians, the Phoenicians, and every ancient religion, warned the lucky people against their stars. The gods, the fates, do not tolerate lasting good fortune: so Herodotus experienced it on his wanderings, as all the old sayings, religions, and superstitions teach. Thy house is not thine, thy gold, thy wife, thy children, thy health, thy glory, all these are as thine as the chance of fortune in a game of dice. All is thine but for a moment: then the die is cast. The gods want it that way.</p> <p>That's why nothing is as moving as the story of Polycrates, with the ring, the fish, and the fisherman. Man feels his fate and wishes to escape it by sacrifice. But sacrifice is no help: the gods are merciless. Fortune smiles cruelly at you, and if you turn away trembling, she will chase after you, only to humiliate you and rob you of your fate.</p> <p>What then is thine, what is thine that the gods cannot take from thee? Only work. The work that expects no reward, no laurels, no posterity. But it will happen to you if you do not turn from it, and care not for its fate. The toil is yours, the sweat, the sacrifice. All else is more volatile than the morning mist, more fragile than the wing of a butterfly.</p>"