The Discourses

by Epictetus

but all other things they have not placed in our power.

if they had been able, they would have put these other things also in our power, but they certainly could not. For as we exist on the earth, and are bound to such a body and to such companions, how was it possible for us not to be hindered as to these things by externals?

this faculty of pursuing an object and avoiding it, and the faculty of desire and aversion, and, in a word, the faculty of using the appearances of things; and if you will take care of this faculty and consider it your only possession, you will never be hindered, never meet with impediments; you will not lament, you will not blame, you will not flatter any person.”

must make the best use that we can of the things which are in our power, and use the rest according to their nature. What is their nature then? As God may please.

“Why then, if we are naturally such, are not a very great number of us like him?”

“What, then, since I am naturally dull, shall I, for this reason, take no pains?”

proceed from the principle of God being the father of all men to the rest

it is of necessity that every man uses everything according to the opinion which he has about it,

See, then, and take care that you do not become some one of these miserable things.

attempts to avoid anything independent of his will,

Will you not show him the effect of virtue that he may learn where to look for improvement?

“Slave, I am not inquiring about this, but how you exercise pursuit and avoidance, desire and aversion, how your design and purpose and prepare yourself, whether conformably to nature or not.

I tell him to return home immediately, and not to neglect his affairs there;

but to him who discovered truth and brought it to light and communicated it to all, not the truth which shows us how to live, but how to live well, who of you for this reason has built an altar, or a temple, or has dedicated a statue, or who worships God for this? Because

Now there are two kinds of hardening, one of the understanding, the other of the sense of shame,

Most of us are afraid of mortification of the body, and would contrive all means to avoid such a thing, but we care not about the soul’s mortification.

He does not see the contradiction: he is in a bad condition. Another does see it, but he is not moved, and makes no improvement: he is even in a worse condition. His modesty is extirpated, and his sense of shame; and the rational faculty has not been cut off from him, but it is brutalized.

From everything which is or happens in the world, it is easy to praise Providence, if a man possesses these two qualities, the faculty of seeing what belongs and happens to all persons and things, and a grateful disposition. If he does not possess these two qualities, one man will not see the use of things which are and which happen; another will not be thankful for them, even if he does know them.

each of these things demonstrate the workman,

existence of male and female, and the desire of each for conjunction, and the power of using the parts which are constructed, do not even these declare the workman?

them understand what is done? By no means.

had need of irrational animals to make use of appearances,

of us to understand the use of ...

for us, to whom He has given also the faculty, these things are not sufficient; for unless we act in a proper and orderly manner, and conformably to the nature and constitution of each thing, we shall never attain our true end.

whose constitution is adapted only to use, use alone is enough:

animal which has also the power of understanding the use, unless there be the due exercise of the understanding, he will never attain his proper end.

God has introduced man to be a spectator of God and of His works; and not only a spectator of them, but an interpreter.

Take care then not to die without having been spectators of these things.

“There are some things disagreeable and troublesome in life.” And

Shall I not use the power for the purposes for which I received it, and shall I grieve and lament over what happens?

Is it not plain that he would have wrapped himself up and have slept?

then, must a man provide for himself such means of exercise, and to introduce a lion from some place into his country, and a boar and a hydra?”

but as they did exist, and were found, they were useful for showing what Hercules was and for exercising him.

subject to no compulsion unimpeded, and has put them entirely in our own power, without even having reserved to Himself any power of hindering or impeding.

you have powers and means for greatness of soul and manliness but what powers you have for finding fault and making accusations,

sophistical arguments, and hypothetical, and the like

relates to the duties of life,

For in every matter we inquire how the wise and good man shall discover the proper path and the proper method of dealing with the matter.

the grave man will not descend into the contest of question and answer, or that, if he does descend into the contest, he will take no care about not conducting himself ras...

some inquiry ought to be made into those topics on which particularly questioning an...

what is the end proposed in reasoning? To establish true propositions, to remove the false, to withhold assent...

What else than the faculty which proves and distinguishes

Consequently also in reasoning what has been said is not enough; but is it necessary that a man should acquire the faculty of examining and distinguishing the true and the false, and that which is not plain?

what is proposed in reaso...

you should accept what follows from that which you have ...

is it then enough in this case also ...

It is not enough; but a man must learn how one thing is a consequence of other things, and when one thing follows from one thing, and whe...

not necessary that this power should also be acquired by him who purposes to conduct himself skillfully in reasoning, the power of demonstrating himself the several things which he has proposed, and the power of understanding the demonstrations of others, inclu...

some cases we have properly granted the premisses or assumptions, and there results from them something; and though it is not true, yet none the less it does result.

Ought I to admit the falsehood?