If you are fond of a jug, say you are fond of a jug; then you will not be disturbed if it is broken. If you kiss your child or your wife, say to yourself that you are kissing a human being, for then if death strikes it you will not be disturbed.
AI put this 1916 translation into today's English. Only the wording changed: each rewrite was checked against the original to keep its exact meaning.
Original translation
“If you are fond of a jug, say you are fond of a jug; then you will not be disturbed if it be broken. If you kiss your child or your wife, say to yourself that you are kissing a human being, for then if death strikes it you will not be disturbed.”
“It is the act of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition; it is the act of one who has begun to be instructed, to lay the blame on himself; and of one whose instruction is completed, neither to blame another, nor himself.”
“Remember that it is not the person who insults you or strikes you who offends you, but your opinion about these things as being offensive. When a man then irritates you, you must know that it is your own opinion which has irritated you.”
AI put this 1877 translation into today's English. Only the wording changed: each rewrite was checked against the original to keep its exact meaning.
Original translation
“Remember that it is not he who reviles you or strikes you, who insults you, but it is your opinion about these things as being insulting. When then a man irritates you, you must know that it is your own opinion which has irritated you.”
Translated by George Long, 1877
“The condition and characteristic of an uninstructed person is this: he never expects from himself profit (advantage) nor harm, but from externals. The condition and characteristic of a philosopher is this: he expects all advantage and all harm from himself.”
― EpictetusEnchiridion (Chapter 3)