Discourses and Selected Writings (Classics)

by Epictetus

[1] Whenever I see a person suffering from nervousness, I think, well, what can he expect? If he had not set his sights on things outside man’s control, his nervousness would end at once. [2] Take a lyre player: he’s relaxed when he performs alone, but put him in front of an audience, and it’s a different story, no matter how beautiful his voice or how well he plays the instrument. Why? Because he not only wants to perform well, he wants to be well received – and the latter lies outside his control.

And yet I won’t have done you any harm – any more than a mirror is to blame when it shows a plain person what they look like; or a doctor is mean if he tells a patient, ‘Look, you may think this is insignificant, but you’re really sick; no food for you today, only water.’ No one thinks, ‘How rude!’ [22] But say to someone, ‘Your desires are unhealthy, your powers of aversion are weak, your plans are incoherent, your impulses are at odds with nature and your system of values is false and confused,’ – and off they go alleging slander.

[8] Begin with a firm foundation; evaluate your decision to see if it is valid – then there will be a basis for this rigid resolve of yours. [9] If your foundation is rotten or crumbling, not a thing should be built on it,∗ and the bigger and grander you make it, the sooner it will collapse.

God save me from fools with a little philosophy – no one is more difficult to reach. ‘I’ve made a decision.’ Yes, so have lunatics. But the more fixed their delusions, the more medication they require.

[27] Every day you should put the ideas in action that protect against attachment to externals such as individual people, places or institutions – even your own body. Remember the law of God and keep it constantly in view: [28] look to your own means, leave everything that isn’t yours alone. Make use of what material advantages you have, don’t regret the ones you were not allowed. If any of them are recalled, let go of them willingly, grateful for the time you had to enjoy them

Behold the birth of tragedy: when idiots come face to face with the vicissitudes of life.

obtaining our desire is not done by looking outside ourselves for help, or by changing or rearranging circumstance.

If you are seized by greed on some occasion, reason can be invoked to alert you to the danger. Then the passion will abate and the mind will be restored to its former balance. [9] But if you don’t bring anything by way of relief, the mind will not return to normal; when it’s inflamed by an impression, it will yield to passion more quickly the next time. Keep it up, and the mind grows inured to vice;

[24] Don’t let the force of the impression when first it hits you knock you off your feet; just say to it, ‘Hold on a moment; let me see who you are and what you represent. Let me put you to the test.’ Next, don’t let it pull you in by picturing to yourself the pleasures that await you. [25] Otherwise it will lead you by the nose wherever it wants. Oppose it with some good and honourable thought, and put the dirty one to rout.

what can I add to what’s already been said? If I am vain, however, and want to impress people, especially at a party, I can catalogue exactly who said what:

Nature gives a person rules and guidelines to discover the truth, and instead of trying to complement and improve on them, they devote themselves to impugning and rejecting the least little thing that could assist them in the effort.

People are ready to acknowledge some of their faults, but will admit to others only with reluctance. No one, at any rate,∗ will admit to being stupid or obtuse. On the contrary, you hear people on every side saying, ‘If only I had as much luck as I have sense.’

no doubt you have seen dogs playing with, and fawning before, each other, and thought, ‘Nothing could be friendlier.’ But just throw some meat in the middle, and then you’ll know what friendship amounts to.

Wherever ‘me’ and ‘mine’ are, that’s where every creature necessarily tends.

A bad person’s character cannot be trusted, it’s weak and indecisive, easily won over by different impressions at different times.

If some things are of greater value, however, that does not mean we should slight the contribution of the others.

[1] ‘I am ill here,’ said a student, ‘and want to go home.’ [2] Because you were never ill at home, I suppose?

‘Being healthy is good, being sick is bad.’ No, my friend: enjoying health in the right way is good; making bad use of your health is bad.

First, tell yourself what you want to be, then act your part accordingly.

All our efforts must be directed towards an end, or we will act in vain. If it is not the right end, we will fail utterly.

Is your goal to educate or be praised? Right away the answer comes back, ‘What do I care for the praise of the vulgar masses?’

Doesn’t it seem to you that acting against one’s will, under protest and compulsion, is tantamount to being a slave?

‘A pretty woman has made of me a perfect slave, something not even my fiercest enemies could accomplish.’

There are tame lions that people cage, raise, feed and take with them wherever they go. Yet who will call such a lion free? The easier its life, the more slavish it is.

This is the cause of everyone’s troubles, the inability to apply common preconceptions to particulars.

Freedom is not achieved by satisfying desire, but by eliminating it.

there is no shame in making an honest effort.

if you value dignity and restraint over being called a ‘sport’ by your old mates, then forget other considerations, renounce them, walk away and have nothing more to do with that crowd.

if it doesn’t make you peaceful, what good is it?

the more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.

Just keep in mind the central questions: ‘What is mine, what is not mine? What has been given to me? What does God want me to do, or not do, now?’

There is one road to peace and happiness (keep the thought near by morning, noon and night): renunciation of externals; regarding nothing as your own; handing over everything to fortune and the deity.

Whoever chafes at the conditions dealt by fate is unskilled in the art of life; whoever bears with them nobly and makes wise use of the results is a man who deserves to be considered good.

there were two vices much blacker and more serious than the rest: lack of persistence and lack of self-control.

When we are guests at a dinner party, we content ourselves with the food on offer; if anyone were to tell the host to put out fish or cake, he would seem rude. In real life, however, we ask the gods for what they do not give, and this though they have provided us with plenty.

Remember from now on whenever something tends to make you unhappy, draw on this principle: ‘This is no misfortune; but bearing with it bravely is a blessing.’

It is not events that disturb people, it is their judgements concerning them.

remaining honest, trustworthy and dignified, show me how and I will do it. But if you expect me to sacrifice my own values, just so you can get your hands on things that aren’t even good – well, you can see yourself how thoughtless and unfair you’re being.