Moreover, they divide all existing things into good, bad, and indifferent... Those are indifferent which are neither beneficial nor injurious, such as life, health, pleasure, beauty, strength, riches, a good reputation, nobility of birth; and their contraries, death, disease, labour, disgrace, weakness, poverty, a bad reputation, baseness of birth, and the like... Again, of things indifferent, they call some preferred (προηγμένα), and others rejected (ἀποπροηγμένα). Those are preferred, which have some proper value (ἀξίαν), and those are rejected, which have no value at all (ἀπαξίαν ἔχοντα). And by the term proper value, they mean that quality of things, which causes them to concur in producing a well-regulated life... Again, they say that that is duty, which is preferred, and which contains in itself reasonable arguments why we should prefer it; as for instance, its corresponding to the nature of life itself; and this argument extends to plants and animals, for even their nature is subject to the obligation of certain duties. And duty (τὸ καθῆκον) had this name given to it by Zeno, in the first instance... — Diogenes Laertius, *Lives*, VII.60–62 (tr. C. D. Yonge, 1853) **Surface Gloss:** While only virtue is good and only vice is bad, external things like health and wealth are "indifferent"—yet subdivided into "preferred" (having practical value for natural living) and "rejected," forming the basis for Zeno's concept of "duty" (*kathekon*). Separate your **Moral/Existential Ledger** from your **Operational Ledger**. Put only things under your direct volitional control (integrity, courage, rational execution) on the Existential Ledger; put money, status, health, and market outcomes on the Operational Ledger as **"Preferred Indifferents."** Work systematically to acquire Preferred Indifferents because they are the natural fuel of action, but refuse to let their loss register as an existential defeat.
— In our words · Source: Lives of Eminent Philosophers (Diogenes Laertius)