“If you are kissing a child of yours – or a brother, or a friend – never put your imagination unreservedly into the act and never give your emotion free rein, but curb it and check it (like the mentors who stand behind the conqueror in his triumphal car to prompt him to remember that he is only a human being). It is up to you to be your own prompter and to remind yourself that the being whom you love is mortal, so that what you are loving is not your own property. It has been given to you only temporarily, and the gift is not irrevocable or absolute. It is like a fig or a bunch of grapes that one has at the appointed season; and if one goes on craving for it in wintertime one is a fool. It is equally foolish to crave for one’s son or one’s friend out of season; that is just another form of asking for figs in winter. … Indeed, there is no harm in accompanying the act of kissing the child by whispering over him: ‘To-morrow you will die’” (Epictetus: Dissertationes, Book III, chap. 24, §§ 85-8). [...]
Translator not stated; perhaps Toynbee.
A Study of History, Vol VI, OUP, 1939 (footnote)
