An excerpt from The Manual of the stoic greek philosopher Epictetus:

"If you want to improve, reject such reasonings as these: "If I
neglect my affairs, I'll have no income; if I don't correct my
servant, he will be bad." For it is better to die with hunger, exempt
from grief and fear, than to live in affluence with perturbation; and
it is better your servant should be bad, than you unhappy. Begin
therefore from little things. Is a little oil spilt? A little wine
stolen? Say to yourself, "This is the price paid for apathy, for
tranquillity, and nothing is to be had for nothing." When you call
your servant, it is possible that he may not come; or, if he does, he
may not do what you want. But he is by no means of such importance
that it should be in his power to give you any disturbance."

This part now is a bit OT: The text above applies universally, but the
reason I especially recalled it today is because of a recent personal
incident. I won't go into details, but suffice it to say that I am
really sick of a government that rips off its own citizens. Europs
sucks. Now I understand americans when they talk about the hypocrisy
of european governments.