On what was already given
“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for.”
Epicurus is not arguing against wanting things. He is pointing at a small, constant act of ruin: holding what you have up against what you do not, so that the comparison quietly spoils both.
Everything now ordinary was once uncertain — the work, the person, the quiet room. Nothing about them changed when they arrived. Only the attention moved on, and it took the pleasure with it.