No leisure — but the power is yours. The fivefold refrain ἔξεστιν ("it is possible, in your power") overturns the complaint of scarce time: there is no leisure to read (books of philosophy) — but virtue needs no reading; it lies wholly in what "is possible" here and now. The same argument is 4.30 (the philosopher without a book) and the DOGMAdichotomy of control: leisure for externals may be taken from you, but not the capacity for the inner work.

Four "you can"s. The list rises in stringency: (1) to curb "insolence" (ὕβρις); (2) to be above TERMpleasure (ἡδονή) and pain (πόνος) — the pair one must "overtop" (καθυπερτερεῖν), granting it no verdict; (3) to be above "petty fame" (δοξάριον — a diminutive for the chase after honor); (4) highest of all — not to be angry (μὴ θυμοῦσθαι) at the unfeeling and ungrateful, "and moreover to care for them" (κήδεσθαι αὐτῶν). This last "you can" turns endurance into DOGMAactive affection: not merely to keep from irritation at another's ingratitude, but to benefit the ungrateful (cf. 7.22 — to love even those who err). The governing discipline is desire (to overtop pleasure, pain, vainglory), the sustaining one action (care for the ungrateful).