If you want a man to keep his head when the crisis comes, you must give him some training before it comes. This was the aim of the men who once every month pretended they were poor.

While fortune is bestowing favors on it then is the time for it to be strengthened against her rebuffs. In the midst of peace the soldier carries out manoeuvres against a non-existent enemy and tires himself out with unnecessary toil in order to be equal to it when it is necessary.

Set aside now and then a number of days during which you will be content with the plainest of food, and very little of it, and with rough, coarse clothing. Ask yourself , 'Is this what one used to dread?'.