The fear of loss of one’s independence is the surest sign of one whose nature is not fundamentally independent. What is intrinsic cannot be lost, hence cannot be risked. We have no need to fear for any of our greatest virtues. Only what is grafted onto us can be lost, but perhaps we should be glad to lose those things. But then perhaps we must not risk this. Regardless, I have never felt pass a single moment in which I was less independent than I thought I ought to be.