Epictetus, the Roman slave who became one of the most prominent Stoic teachers, gives us the same important message as Marcus in his Enchiridion, or Handbook: ‘Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them.’12 This truth is our starting point if we are to adopt Stoic principles. Epictetus later expands: ‘If, therefore, any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone.’
