Some meetings turn out bad, meeting where the other person acts inappropriately because they could afford to do that.
How hollow are we with this external layer over ourselves: power, position, designation? Do we not know that these are all temporary?
Don’t be prideful with any excellence that is not your own. If a horse should be prideful and say, ” I am handsome,” it would be supportable. But when you are prideful, and say, ” I have a handsome horse,” know that you are proud of what is, in fact, only the good of the horse. What, then, is your own? Only your reaction to the appearances of things. Thus, when you behave conformably to nature in reaction to how things appear, you will be proud of reason; for you will take pride in some good of your own.
The Enchiridion, Epictetus