Complete Works of Epictetus

by Epictetus

Should I try to please you? Why? I suppose, you know the measure by which one man is estimated by another. Have you taken pains to learn what is a good man and what is a bad man, and how a man becomes one or the other? Why then are you not good yourself? — How, he replies, am I not good? — Because no good man laments or groans or weeps, no good man is pale and trembles, or says, How will he receive me, how will he listen to me? — Slave, just as it pleases him. Why do you care about what belongs to others? Is it now his fault if he receives badly what proceeds from you? — Certainly. — And is it possible that a fault should be one man’s, and the evil in another? — No. — Why then are you anxious about that which belongs to others? — Your question is reasonable; but I am anxious how I shall speak to him. Cannot you then speak to him as you choose? — But I fear that I may be disconcerted? — If you are going to write the name of Dion, are you afraid that you would be disconcerted? — By no means. — Why? is it not because you have practised writing the name? — Certainly. — Well, if you were going to read the name, would you not feel the same? and why? Because every art has a certain strength and confidence in the things which belong to it. — Have you then not practised speaking? and what else did you learn in the school? Syllogisms and sophistical propositions? For what purpose? was it not for the purpose of discoursing skilfully? and is not discoursing skilfully the same as disco...