Apply some limit

Cicero, On Duties, Book I, p.8

For we shall conserve honorableness and seemliness if we apply some limit and order to the things with which we deal in our life.

Retreat and vulnerability

From Epicurus - that we value virtue, not because of the gods, but because living virtuously makes us happy (brings pleasure).

From Epictetus - that we cannot escape into "a Garden" - that the only thing we control is our virtue (our aversion and desire) - that the Epicurean path to happiness by retreating into the Garden and focusing on friendship is a formula for anxiety - for friends are externals and thus unpredictable - and we will never know when an intruder is about to scale the walls of the Garden. The quest for Epicurean ataraxia means constant vigilance, constant vulnerability to whoever intrudes, constant slavery to whoever can secure (or invade) our Garden.

To halt of our own accord

Seneca, On Tranquility of Mind, X 6:

Nothing can free us from these mental waverings so effectively as always to establish some limit to advancement and not leave to Fortune the decision of when it shall end, but halt of our own accord.

Foucault, The Care of the Self, p. 93:

And to Lucilius, who is not under any threat, however, Seneca gives the advice to disengage himself from his duties, gradually and at the right time, just as Epicurus counseled, so as to be able to place himself at his own disposal.

...as if he were his own enemy lying in ambush

Epictetus, Enchiridion, Chapter 48:

The mark and attitude of the ordinary man: never look for help or harm from yourself, only from outsiders. The mark and attitude of the philosopher: look for help and harm exclusively from yourself.

And the signs of a person making progress: he never criticizes, praises, blames or points the finger, or represents himself as knowing or amounting to anything. If he experiences frustration or disappointment, he points the finger at himself. If he is praised, he is more amused than elated. And if he is criticized, he won't bother to respond. He walks around as if he were an invalid, careful not to move a healing limb before it's at full strength. He has expunged all desire, and made the things that are contrary to nature and in his control the sole target of his aversion. Impulse he only uses with detachment. He does not care if he comes across as stupid or naive. In a word, he keeps an eye on himself as if he were his own enemy lying in ambush.

A person who will not stoop to flattery...

Epictetus, Enchiridion, Chapter 25:

...if you do not engage in the same acts as others with a view to gaining such honors, you cannot expect the same results. A person who will not stoop to flattery does not get to have the flatterer's advantages...refuse to praise someone and you cannot expect the same compensation as a flatterer. It would be unfair and greedy on your part, then, to decline to pay the price that these privileges entail and hope to get them for free.

Put up with being perceived as ignorant

Epictetus, Enchiridion, Chapter 13:

If you want to make progress, put up with being perceived as ignorant or naive in worldly matters, don't aspire to a reputation for sagacity. If you do impress others as somebody, don't altogether believe it. You have to realize, it isn't easy to keep your will in agreement with nature, as well as externals. Caring about the one inevitably means you are going to shortchange the other.

Compare with Gracian, who would suggest we hide the depth of our knowledge, but for strategic reasons, and in order to increase our ability to manipulate and surprise others.

Warnings against advancement

Epictetus, Book IV, 1:

When a man gain's Caesar's friendship, does he stop being hindered or constrained, does he live in peace and happiness?...So step up, sir, and tell us, when did you sleep more soundly, now or before you became intimate with Caesar? 'By the gods, stop mocking my condition. You don't know what agonies I endure. I can't even fall off to sleep before someone comes and announces, "The emperor is up already, and about to make his appearance," and then I am harassed by one worry and crisis after another...He says that if he's not invited to dine with Caesar, he's an emotional wreck; and if he is invited he behaves like a slave asked to sit beside his master, anxious the whole time lest he do or say something gauche. Is he afraid that, like a slave, he'll get whipped? He should be so lucky. As befits a personage as lofty as a friend of Caesar, he's afraid his head will be chopped off...

...in a word, which life would you prefer, the present or the previous one? I could swear that there is no one so crude or forgetful that they don't actually regret their fortune in precise proportion to how close to Caesar they've become.'

Epictetus, again, with the quiet life

Epictetus, Enchiridion, 15

...wealth and status...decline these goods even when they are on offer and you will have a share in the gods' power as well as their company.

Living quietly

Perhaps in response to Epicurus, Epictetus rails against "those intent on living quietly."

"A quiet life," for Epictetus, is just another possession, an external that threatens to enslave he who desires it - "you will always have to serve the person who can secure your release, or the person who cab block your way."

Instead, the goal is to be "happy, unflappable and equal to every occasion" even if circumstances call for you assume responsibilities.

You who seeks the quiet life are just like the masses, "the only difference being that they are afraid they will not hold office, while you are afraid you will."

Epictetus has a point on the Epicurean notion of retreat into the quiet life - you always remain vulnerable to anyone who can disrupt your peaceful setting. Epicurus is aware of this, and views as "good" anything that protects you from other people. But that just highlights how physically (external) vulnerable we are, most of the time, to other people.

Epicurus would also counter with something like 'be realistic - you are going to apply yourself to some external activities. Just be sure those activities bring you pleasure, not pain; and the quiet life is the path most conducive to pleasure.'

"If you seek tranquility, do less"

Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, Book Four, 24:

"If you seek tranquility, do less." Or (more accurately) do what's essential - what the logos of a social being requires, and in the requisite way. Which brings a double satisfaction: to do less, better.

Epictetus on harmonious obscurity - sounding like Epicurus

From the Enchiridion, chapter 24.

"Is lack of distinction bad?" If others cause your obscurity, meaning obscurity is external, then obscurity can not be bad (nor good, I suppose). "And how can you be 'a nobody in obscurity' when you only have to be somebody in the areas you control..."

"Which would you rather have, anyway - money, or a worthy and faithful friend? So why not support me to that end, rather than asking me to engage in behavior that involves the loss of these qualities?"

"It is enough if everyone plays their respective part."

"Whatever position you are equipped to fill, so long as you preserve the man of trust and integrity."

"Live your life without attracting attention."

"Happiness and blessedness do not belong to abundance of riches or exalted position or offices or power, but to freedom from pain and gentleness of feeling and a state of mind that sets limits that are in accordance with nature." - Epicurus