Discourses and Selected Writings (Classics)

by Epictetus

In general, you will find no art or faculty that can analyse itself, therefore none that can approve or disapprove of itself.

Reason is unique among the faculties assigned to us in being able to evaluate itself

So it’s only appropriate that the gods have given us the best and most efficacious gift: the ability to make good use of impressions. Other capacities they did not put in our power.

If you take care of it and identify with it, you will never be blocked or frustrated; you won’t have to complain, and never will need to blame or flatter anyone. [13] Is that enough to satisfy you?’ ‘It’s more than enough. Thank you.’

What should we do then? Make the best use of what is in our power, and treat the rest in accordance with its nature. And what is its nature? However God decides.

‘Must I be beheaded now, and alone?’ Well, do you want everyone to be beheaded just because misery loves company? [19] Why not hold out your neck the way Lateranus did at Rome,

I must die. But must I die bawling? I must be put in chains – but moaning and groaning too? I must be exiled; but is there anything to keep me from going with a smile, calm and self-composed?

Man, the rational animal, can put up with anything except what seems to him irrational; whatever is rational is tolerable.

But standards of reasonableness and unreasonableness vary from one person to the next –

Which is why education has no goal more important than bringing our preconception of what is reasonable and unreasonable in alignment with nature.

But I aspire to be the purple stripe, that is, the garment’s brilliant hem. However small a part it may be, it can still manage to make the garment as a whole attractive. Don’t tell me, then, ‘Be like the rest,’ because in that case I cannot be the purple stripe.

We must endure a winter training, and can’t be dashing into situations for which we aren’t yet prepared.

Consider at what price you sell your integrity; but please, for God’s sake, don’t sell it cheap.

we do not abandon any discipline for despair of ever being the best in it.

you are the son of God, shouldn’t your pride be that much greater?

‘What am I? A wretched mortal – a feeble piece of flesh.’ [6] Feeble indeed – but you have something better than the flesh. So why turn away from this and cling to that?

Because of this connection, some of us sink to the level of wolves – faithless, vicious and treacherous. Others turn into lions – wild, savage and uncivilized. But most of us become like foxes, the sorriest of the lot. [8] For what else is a spiteful, malicious man except a fox, or something even lower and less dignified?

What is the goal of virtue, after all, except a life that flows smoothly?

‘This person can read Chrysippus already by himself. You are making progress, by God,’ someone says sarcastically. ‘Some progress that is!’ [10] ‘Why do you make fun of him?’ ‘Well, why do you try to distract him from coming to an awareness of his faults?’ Don’t you want to show him the purpose of virtue, so that he will know what real progress consists in?

it’s as if I were to say to an athlete, ‘Show me your shoulders,’ and he responded with, ‘Have a look at my weights.’

‘What I want to see isn’t the weights but how you’ve profited from using them.’

whoever desires or avoids things outside their control cannot be free or faithful, but has to shift and fluctuate right along with them,

For what else are tragedies but the ordeals of people who have come to value externals, tricked out in tragic verse?

the knowledge that makes me impassive is faithful to, and in accord with, nature.’

[1] If a man objects to truths that are all too evident, it is no easy task finding arguments that will change his mind. [2] This is proof neither of his own strength nor of his teacher’s weakness. When someone caught in an argument hardens to stone, there is just no more reasoning with them.

Most of us dread the deadening of the body and will do anything to avoid it. About the deadening of the soul, however, we don’t care one iota.

Can I go on reasoning with such a person? What fire or iron can be applied to him, to make him conscious of his condition? He senses it, but pretends he doesn’t; that makes him even worse off than a corpse.

It is easy to praise providence for everything that happens in the world provided you have both the ability to see individual events in the context of the whole and a sense of gratitude. [2] Without these, either you will not see the usefulness of what happens or, even supposing that you do see it, you will not be grateful for it.

But for us who have been given the faculty of understanding, [15] this is not enough. Unless we act appropriately, methodically, and in line with our nature and constitution, we will fall short of our proper purpose.

Man was brought into the world, however, to look upon God and his works – and not just look, but appreciate. [20] And so it is inexcusable for man to begin and end where the beasts do. He should begin where they do, but only end where nature left off dealing with him; [21] which is to say, in contemplation and understanding, and a manner of life otherwise adapted to his nature. [22] Come to look upon and appreciate God’s works at least once before you die.

Will you never come to a realization of who you are, what you have been born for

Furthermore, you have inner strengths that enable you to bear up with difficulties of every kind. You have been given fortitude, courage and patience. [29] Why should I worry about what happens if I am armed with the virtue of fortitude?

What would have become of Hercules, do you think, if there had been no lion, hydra, stag or boar – and no savage criminals to rid the world of?

already upset and in a state about your present circumstances. So then you reproach the gods. [39] What else can come of such weakness except impiety?