Famous Epictetus Quote
So you wish to conquer in the Olympics, my friend? And I too, by the Gods, and fine thing it would be! But first mark the conditions and the consequences, and then set to work. You will have to put yourself under discipline, to eat by rule, to aviod cakes and sweatmeats, to take exercise at the appointed hour whether you like it or no, in cold or heat; to abstain from cold drinks and from wine at your will; in a word, to give yourself over to the trainer as to a physician. Then in the conflict itself you are most likely enough to dislocate your wrist or twist your ankle, to swallow a great deall of dust, or to be severely thrashed, and, after all these things, to be defeated.
By Epictetus