SELECTIONS FROM THE GOLDEN SAYINGS OF EPICTETUS
INTRODUCTION (By JRS)
Epictetus (60 AD - 120 AD?) was a Greek slave during the era of Roman supremacy, and survived a beginning of brutal servitude to become one of the foremost Stoic philosophers of ancient times. Stoicism is a school of philosophy usually said to have taken form under the guidance of Zeno (336-264 BC?), a Cypriot merchant turned philosopher. (He lost his fortune in a disaster at sea, and arriving penniless in Athens, applied to become the student of Crates, a famous philosopher, eventually going on to form his own school, the Stoa Poecile, or "Pointed Porch", from which the name Stoicism derives. Finding that his new wealth - the inner wealth of understanding - far outshone the wealth he had previously accumulated, he went on to say: "I made a prosperous voyage, when I was wrecked." [1] Since the times of Zeno, and his pupils Chrysippus and Cleanthes, Stoicism had developed into a respected and influential system of thought, or feeling about life and divinity, most outstanding for its subtle spiritual content and its ethical intent. In the hands of Epictetus - living as a slave through times of repression, excess, and uncertainty (including during the notorious reign of Nero) - Stoicism grew more vivid as a moral system and way of being, infused by his impactful personality, which had been shaped by injustice, hardship, and powerlessness until a new form of power had emerged within his heart - power that no man could break or steal - power that came not from armies, but from understanding - from a deep connection with the divinity of the Universe. (Later, from the other end of the social spectrum, Emperor Marcus Aurelius, 121 AD-180 AD, made a significant contribution to Stoicism, as well, with his famous Meditations. While Epictetus demonstrated the ability of the poor and oppressed to transcend the position assigned to him by masters and emperors, Marcus Aurelius demonstrated the insignificance of power and station in the cosmic scheme of things - in this way a Greek slave and a Roman Emperor, both coming from extreme situations, met on the ground of an understanding beyond the outward appearance of either one of their lives.)
While parallels between Stoicism and early Christianity are often drawn, it seems more accurate to note a philosophical kinship (though not a direct connection) with Buddhism. For as the Buddha taught that suffering comes from desire (desire built upon illusion, or unpredictable foundations) - and as he taught that to end suffering, desire must be extinguished (brought into harmony with reality, and the greater workings of the Universe, as opposed to remaining rooted in the alienated/separated ego) - so the Stoics taught that, in a world of sickness, war, poverty, oppression, pride, glory, disgrace and vulnerability, one had best seek contentment and the meaning of life within that inner spiritual/moral terrain over which one was complete master. In that sacred and powerful place inside one’s own heart, where God and Man met, there was infinite power, a power that could stand up to even slavery or death. This does not mean that the Stoics were necessarily resigned to accepting the status quo: on the contrary, their sense of justice, based upon a deep understanding of the Divine and its intersection with human life, might sometimes compel them to stand up for what they thought was right with more courage than the non-Stoic, or to strive to perform compassionate and beneficial work upon the earth, but with an understanding that the success or failure of their work was something beyond their control. However, by making the attempt, they were fulfilling their duty as human beings. By living within their intent and will, more than in outward attainment, they could always count on success - for this is how the Stoic saw success as a human being. One who understood Nature and his place within it, one who was at peace with God and himself, and one who was seeking to improve the world, or his part of the world, as best he could, was the truly wealthy human being, the truly powerful human being, the truly successful human being.
If all this had been only an intellectual air or vanity, of course, it would have remained utterly meaningless, and most likely invisible in the history of philosophical thought. However, it was the Stoic’s aim, and frequent triumph, to actually integrate this idea into the deepest core of his being, and to live serenely, courageously, and generously according to it, and from it. In such cases, a genuine transcendence and enlightenment were attained.
Where Stoicism is particularly reminiscent of early Christianity is most likely in its emphasis upon the individual and his very personal connection with the Divine, attained through his own thought, meditations, and spiritual/philosophical development. The Stoic, as the early Christian, did not see the laws of the State or the decrees of the powerful as greater than the actions he was compelled to perform, or not perform, according to the decrees of his own conscience, born out of the free exercise of his own thought or meditations. Stoicism was thus, potentially highly subversive, especially to those regimes most marked by cruelty and injustice. However, as Stoicism had found considerable acceptance among many ancient Romans, and been incorporated non-subversively by many, who used it to survive through periods of madness, depravity, and unbridled ambition, and to try to exert some influence back towards sanity, rather than to revolt or resist when history was not yet on their side, it was left to the early Christians - who somehow seemed more stubborn and threatening, as well as vulnerable - to bear the brunt of the State’s wrath for their emphasis of the individual’s connection to God
above his connection to the State.Stoicism also bears a resemblance to early Christianity in terms of its asceticism, for Stoics often saw attachment to the pleasures of the body as a likely path towards frustration, weakness, or corruption. In cases, this impulse may have been overdone, although it is certainly true that the man who is "a slave to his pleasures", may often lead himself to ruin and wreak havoc in the lives of others, as well.
The following passages from Epictetus come from a wonderful book, now out of print, entitled The Golden Sayings Of Epictetus. [2] The translator was Hastings Crossley, M.A., and the version which I have drawn from was published by Macmillan & Co., Ltd. (London), in 1912 (an earlier version of the work was published in 1903). This is a book, unlike the more complicated and large-scale Discourses of Epictetus, that contains, in a relatively concise format, some of the most important teachings and exhortations of the ancient philosopher. This is a book of special value to those in need, for it contains the seeds of courage and inner strength in times of adversity. It does not seem, to me, to be a book for contemplation or intellectual enrichment as much as it is a simple, straightforward guide for enduring hardship and setback, for rising above defeat and doubt, for calming the turmoil, and creating a safe haven in one’s own heart and mind, in which to weather the inner and outer storms that life so often brings. When best understood and applied, it is nothing like the kind of soul lobotomy which many simplistic guides to happiness in our own times seem to offer: these are teachings that do not turn off our moral senses, but invigorate and strengthen them. This is a philosophy not to admire, endlessly discuss, or use as proof of one’s erudition, but rather, to live by.
Here I will include some of my favorite passages from The Golden Sayings Of Epictetus: a book which, obscure though it is, has made a real difference in my life.
As in the original, passages are numbered. I have added titles to aid in the identification of passages, which readers may wish to come back to at various times in life.
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Notes: [1] Quoted from Will Durant’s The Life Of Greece, p. 650.
[2] As of April 2005, The Golden Sayings of Epictetus may still be found, in book form, as one section in a volume which contains several other pieces: three by Plato ( The Apology, Phaedo, Crito) and one by Marcus Aurelius (Meditations). It is also available in digital format for download to palm readers, and available for free at one or more web sites.
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An Additional Note, on the Stoic concept of God:
Throughout the text, you will find, interspersed, mention of "God" and of "Gods." Among some Stoic thinkers, there seems to have been a kind of blending/alternating use of the traditional classic concept of a pantheon of Gods, with the concept of a single or unified "God" - a pervading divine power/presence/mind behind and within the workings of the Universe, which human beings could particularly connect to through the sacred gift of their own mind, with its unique ability to discern, discover, recognize, and understand (as compared to the "animal mind"). This form of divinity is often portrayed not as an all-powerful and intervening force on behalf of or against Man, but as a kind of guiding force/set of principles behind the operation of the Universe, a Creator who has given Man the power to understand and live in peace within the way things are and can be (and to greatly improve the world by admitting the divine more fully into his social constructions).___________________________
Without further ado, I offer you this spirit and these thoughts that have helped me through many a troubled time.
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IV: He Hath Entrusted Me With Myself
VI: Place All Thou Hast Therein
VIII: I Desire To Be The Purple (fragment)
XIII: Not To Leave Off Where The Brutes Do
XVI: Knowledge Of Our Kinship With God Sets Us Free
XXVI: To Learn To Wish That Each Thing Should Come To Pass As It Does
XXVII: When Thou Losest Any Outward Thing
XXX: For A Principle To Become A Man’s Own
XXXVII: Oath To Caesar; Oath To Yourself
LVII: The Coin Will Tell Its Own Tale
LXI: Entrusted To Thine Own Care (fragment)
LXIII: The Guide And The Unlearned Man
LXV: I Have Conversed With Many Rich Men
LXVII: Philosopher And Physician
LXXXI: Teachers Need To Be Inspired (fragment)
LXXXIV: When Disease And Death Overtake Me
LXXXVII: Physicians, Trainers, And Wise Men
LXXXVIII: Lycurgus And The Angry Young Man
XCIX: The Effect Of Others On You, And The Power Of Conviction
C: On Discipline: Spit The Water Out!
CII: As Bad Actors Cannot Sing Alone
CIV: What Would You Do; And What Can Your Nature Bear?
CIX: Not A Philosopher, If Philosophy Hasn’t Changed You
CXII: A Man Cannot Be Cast Beyond The Limits Of The World
CXXI: Pain In The School Of Philosophy
CXXVI: To Be A Good Man, And Happy Therein
CXXX: It Is Not Disappearance Or Destruction, It Is Change
CXXXII: I Will Not Desert My Post (fragment)
CXXXVII: Travellers, And The Wise Man And God
CXLIII: How To Grieve One’s Enemy
CXLVIII: God Hath Granted This Inward Freedom
CL: What I Am, And What I Am Supposed To Be
CLII: My Will Is What Comes To Pass
CLIII: Growing Better Day By Day
CLVII: The Critical Moment Shows The Man
CLXI: Keep Death And Exile Before You
CLXXII: Do Not Fear Misplaced Censure
CLXXXII: The Rich Man Is The Content Man
CLXXXIV: Lead Me, O God, and Thou, O Destiny
CLXXXVI: Care And Preparation, And Acceptance
CLXXXVIII: The Peace That Comes From God
CLXXXIX: What Would I Be Found Doing When Overtaken By Death?
Fragments Attributed To Epictetus
IV: He Hath Entrusted Me With Myself
But I have one whom I must please, to whom I must be subject, whom I must obey: - God, and those who come next to Him. He hath entrusted me with myself: He hath made my will subject to myself alone and given me rules for the right use thereof.
VI: Place All Thou Hast Therein
But what saith God? - ‘Had it been possible, Epictetus, I would have made both that body of thine and thy possessions free and unimpeded, but as it is, be not deceived: - it is not thine own; it is but finely tempered clay. Since then this I could not do, I have given thee a portion of Myself, in the power of desiring and declining and of pursuing and avoiding, and in a word the power of dealing with the things of sense. And if thou neglect not this, but place all thou hast therein, thou shalt never be let or hindered; thou shalt never lament; thou shalt not blame or flatter any. What then? Seemeth this to thee a little thing?’ - God forbid! - ‘Be content then therewith!’
And so I pray the Gods.
What saith Antisthenes? Hast thou never heard? -
It is a kingly thing, O Cyrus, to do well and to be evil spoken of.
VIII: I Desire To Be The Purple (fragment)
[Epictetus here refers to an episode in which a man, fearing for his life, sought approval to act in a way unworthy of his dignity and his conscience. But the man from whom he sought approval told him, "do as you will, but I will not sell myself in that way." When asked why, he replied]: "Because you think yourself but one among the many threads which make up the texture of the doublet. You should aim at being like men in general - just as your thread has no ambition either to be anything distinguished compared with the other threads. But I desire to be the purple - that small and shining part which makes the rest seem fair and beautiful. Why then do you bid me become even as the multitude? Then were I no longer the purple."
The other day I had an iron lamp placed beside my household gods. I heard a noise at the door and on hastening down found my lamp carried off. I reflected that the culprit was in no very strange case. ‘Tomorrow, my friend,’ I said, ‘you will find an earthenware lamp; for a man can only lose what he has.’
The reason why I lost my lamp was that the thief was superior to me in vigilance. He paid however this price for the lamp, that in exchange for it he consented to become a thief: in exchange for it, to become faithless.
XIII: Not To Leave Off Where The Brutes Do
But God hath introduced Man to be a spectator of Himself and of His works; and not a spectator only, but also an interpreter of them. Wherefore it is a shame for man to begin and to leave off where the brutes do. Rather he should begin there, and leave off where Nature leaves off in us: and that is at contemplation, and understanding, and a manner of life that is in harmony with herself.
See then that ye die not without being spectators of these things.
You journey to Olympia to see the work of Phidias; and each of you holds it a misfortune not to have beheld these things before you die. Whereas when there is no need even to take a journey, but you are on the spot, with the works before you, have you no care to contemplate and study these?
Will you not then perceive either who you are or unto what end you were born: or for what purpose the power of contemplation has been bestowed on you?
‘Well, but in life there are some things disagreeable and hard to bear.’
And are there none at Olympia? Are you not scorched by the heat? Are you not cramped for room? Have you not to bathe with discomfort? Are you not drenched when it rains? Have you not to endure the clamour and shouting and such annoyances as these? Well, I suppose you set all this over against the splendour of the spectacle, and bear it patiently. What then? Have you not received powers wherewith to endure all that comes to pass? Have you not received greatness of heart, received courage, received fortitude? What care I, if I am great of heart, for aught that can come to pass? What shall cast me down or disturb me? What shall seem painful? Shall I not use the power to the end for which I received it, instead of moaning and wailing over what comes to pass?
If what philosophers say of the kinship of God and Men be true, what remains for men to do but as Socrates did: - never, when asked one’s country, to answer, ‘I am an Athenian or a Corinthian,’ but ‘I am a citizen of the world.’
XVI: Knowledge Of Our Kinship With God Sets Us Free
He that hath grasped the administration of the World, who hath learned that this community, which consists of God and men, is the foremost and mightiest and most comprehensive of all: - that from God have descended the germs of life, not to my father only and father’s father, but to all things that are born and grow upon the earth, and in an especial manner to those endowed with Reason (for those only are by their nature fitted to hold communion with God, being by means of Reason conjoined with Him) - why should not such an one call himself a citizen of the world? Why not a son of God? Why should he fear aught that comes to pass among men? Shall kinship with Caesar, or any other of the great at Rome, be enough to hedge men around with safety and consideration, without a thought of apprehension: while to have God for our Maker, and Father, and Kinsman, shall not this set us free from sorrows and fears?
Seeing this then, and noting well the faculties which you have, you should say, - ‘Send now, O God, any trial that Thou wilt; lo, I have means and powers given me by Thee to acquit myself with honour through whatever comes to pass!’
- No; but there you sit, trembling for fear certain things should come to pass, and moaning and groaning and lamenting over what does come to pass. And then you upbraid the Gods. Such meanness of spirit can have but one result - impiety.
Yet god has not only given us these faculties by means of which we may bear everything that comes to pass without being crushed or depressed thereby; but like a good King and Father, He has given us this without let or hindrance, placed wholly at our own disposition, without reserving to Himself any power of impediment or restraint. Though possessing all these things free and all your own, you do not use them! You do not perceive what it is you have received nor whence it comes, but sit moaning and groaning; some of you blind to the Giver, making no acknowledgment to your Benefactor; others basely giving themselves to complaints and accusations against God.
Yet what faculties and powers you possess for attaining courage and greatness of heart, I can easily show you; what you have for upbraiding and accusation, it is for you to show me!
XXVI: To Learn To Wish That Each Thing Should Come To Pass As It Does
True instruction is this: - to learn to wish that each thing should come to pass as it does. And how does it come to pass? As the Disposer has disposed it. Now He has disposed that there should be summer and winter, and plenty and dearth, and vice and virtue, and all such opposites, for the harmony of the whole.
XXVII: When Thou Losest Any Outward Thing
Have this thought ever present with thee, when thou losest any outward thing, what thou gainest in its stead; and if this be the more precious, say not, I have suffered loss.
XXX: For A Principle To Become A Man’s Own
You must know that it is no easy thing for a principle to become a man’s own, unless each day he maintain it and hear it maintained, as well as work it out in life.
[In the preceding passage - XXXI - Epictetus spoke of accepting, with contentment, the phases and conditions one must go through.] What then is the chastisement of those who accept it not? To be as they are. Is any discontented with being alone? Let him be in solitude. Is any discontented with his parents? Let him be a bad son, and lament. Is any discontented with his children? Let him be a bad father. - ‘Throw him into prison!’ - What prison? - where he is already: for he is there against his will; and wherever a man is against his will, that to him is a prison. Thus Socrates was not in prison, since he was there with his own consent.
When we are invited to a banquet, we take what is set before us; and were one to call upon his host to set fish upon the table or sweet things, he would be deemed absurd. Yet in a word, we ask the Gods for what they do not give; and that, although they have given us so many things!
XXXVII: Oath To Caesar; Oath To Yourself
‘But,’ you say, ‘I cannot comprehend all this at once.’
‘Why, who told you that your powers were equal to God’s?’
Yet God hath placed by the side of each a man’s own Guardian Spirit, who is charged to watch over him - a Guardian who sleeps not nor is deceived. For to what better or more watchful Guardian could He have committed each of us? So when you have shut the doors and made a darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone; for you are not alone, but God is within, and your Guardian Spirit, and what light do they need to behold what you do? To this God you also should have sworn allegiance, even as soldiers unto Caesar. They when their service is hired, swear to hold the life of Caesar dearer than all else: and will you not swear your oath, that are deemed worthy of so many and great gifts? And will you not keep your oath when you have sworn it? And what oath will you swear? Never to disobey, never to arraign or murmur at aught that comes to you from His hand: never unwillingly to do or suffer aught that necessity lays upon you.
‘Is this oath like theirs?’
They swear to hold no other dearer than Caesar: you, to hold your true selves dearer than all else beside.
When one took counsel of Epictetus, saying, ‘What I seek is this, how even though my brother be not reconciled to me, I may still remain as Nature would have me to be,’ he replied: ‘All great things are slow of growth; nay, this is true even of a grape or of a fig. If then you say to me now, I desire a fig, I shall answer, It needs time: wait till it first flower, then cast its blossom, then ripen. Whereas then the fruit of the fig-tree reaches not maturity suddenly nor yet in a single hour, do you nevertheless desire so quickly and easily to reap the fruit of the mind of man? - Nay, expect it not, even though I bade you!’
‘That Socrates should ever have been so treated by the Athenians!’
Slave! Why say ‘Socrates’? Speak of the thing as it is: That ever then the poor body of Socrates should have been dragged away and haled by main force to prison! That ever hemlock should have been given to the body of Socrates; that that should have breathed its life away! - Do you marvel at this? Do you hold this unjust? Is it for this that you accuse God? Had Socrates no compensation for this? Where then for him was the ideal Good? Whom shall we hearken to, you or him? And what says he?
‘Anytus and Melitus may put me to death: to injure me is beyond their power.’
And again: -
‘If such be the will of God, so let it be.’
In the same way my friend Heraclitus, who had a trifling suit about a petty farm at Rhodes, first showed the judges that his cause was just, and then at the finish cried, ‘I will not entreat you: not do I care what sentence you pass. It is you who are on your trial, not I!’ And so he ended the case.
As for us, we behave like a herd of deer. When they flee from the huntsmen’s feathers in affright, which way do they turn? What haven of safety do they make for? Why, they rush upon the nets! And thus they perish by confounding what they should fear with that wherein no danger lies… Not death or pain is to be feared, but the fear of death or pain. Well said the poet therefore: -
Death has no terror; only a Death of shame!
LVII: The Coin Will Tell Its Own Tale
That was a good reply which Diogenes made to a man who asked him for letters of recommendation. - ‘That you are a man, he will know when he sees you; - whether a good or bad one, he will know if he has any skill in discerning the good and the bad. But if he has none, he will never know, though I write to him a thousand times.’ - It is as though a piece of silver money desired to be recommended to someone to be tested. If the man be a good judge of silver, he will know: the coin will tell its own tale.
LXI: Entrusted To Thine Own Care (fragment)
… When [God] not only fashioned thee, but placed thee, like a ward, in the care and guardianship of thyself alone, wilt thou not only forget this, but also do dishonour to what is committed to thy care!? If God had entrusted thee with an orphan, wouldst thou have thus neglected him? He hath delivered thee to thine own care, saying, I had none more faithful than thyself: keep this man for me such as Nature hath made him - modest, faithful, high-minded, a stranger to fear, to passion, to perturbation…
Such will I show myself to you all. - ‘What, exempt from sickness also: from age, from death?’ Nay, but accepting sickness, accepting death as becomes a God!
LXIII: The Guide And The Unlearned Man
A guide, on finding a man who has lost his way, brings him back to the right path - he does not mock and jeer at him and then take himself off. You also must show the unlearned man the truth, and you will see that he will follow. But so long as you do not show it him, you should not mock, but rather feel your own incapacity.
LXV: I Have Conversed With Many Rich Men
When a youth was giving himself airs in the Theatre and saying, ‘I am wise, for I have conversed with many wise men,’ Epictetus replied, ‘I too have conversed with many rich men, yet I am not rich!’
LXVII: Philosopher And Physician
If I show you, that you lack just what is most important and necessary to happiness, that hitherto your attention has been bestowed on everything rather than that which claims it most; and, to crown all, that you know neither what God nor Man is - neither what Good nor Evil is: why, that you are ignorant of everything else, perhaps you may bear to be told; but to hear that you know nothing of yourself, how could you submit to that? How could you stand your ground and suffer that to be proved? Clearly not at all. You instantly turn away in wrath. Yet what harm have I done you? Unless indeed the mirror harms the ill-favoured man by showing him to himself just as he is; unless the physician can be thought to insult his patient, when he tells him: - ‘Friend, do you suppose there is nothing wrong with you? Why, you have a fever. Eat nothing today, and drink only water.’ Yet no one says, ‘What an insufferable insult!’ Whereas, if you say to a man, ‘Your desires are inflamed, your instincts of rejection are weak and low, your aims are inconsistent, your impulses are not in harmony with Nature, your opinions are rash and false,’ he forthwith goes away and complains that you have insulted him.
- ‘Oh! When shall I see Athens and its Acropolis again?’ - Miserable man! Art thou not contented with the daily sights that meet thine eyes? Canst thou behold aught greater or nobler than the Sun, Moon, and Stars; than the outspread Earth and Sea? If indeed thou apprehendest Him who administers the universe, if thou bearest Him about within thee, canst thou still hanker after mere fragments of stone and a fine rock? When thou art about to bid farewell to the Sun and Moon itself, wilt thou sit down and cry like a child? Why, what didst thou hear, what didst thou learn? Why didst thou write thyself down a philosopher, when thou mightest have written what was the fact, namely, ‘I have made one or two Compendiums, I have read some works of Chrysippus, and I have not even touched the hem of Philosophy’s robe!’
If a man would pursue Philosophy, his first task is to throw away conceit. For it is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he has a conceit that he already knows.
That is the true athlete, that trains himself to resist such outward impressions as these.
‘Stay, wretched man suffer not thyself to be carried away!’ Great is the combat, divine the task! You are fighting for Kingship, for Liberty, for Happiness, for Tranquillity. Remember God: call upon Him to aid thee, like a comrade that stands beside thee in the fight.
If you have assumed a character beyond your strength, you have both played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is within your powers.
LXXXI: Teachers Need To Be Inspired (fragment)
‘… Show me what good I am to do by discoursing with you. Rouse my desire to do so. The sight of the pasture it loves stirs in a sheep the desire to feed: show it a stone or a bit of bread and it remains unmoved. Thus we also have certain natural desires, aye, and one that moves us to speak when we find a listener that is worth his salt: one that himself stirs the spirit. But if he sits by like a stone or a tuft of grass, how can he rouse a man’s desire?’
No man can rob us of our Will - no man can lord it over that!
LXXXIV: When Disease And Death Overtake Me
When disease and death overtake me, I would fain be found engaged in the task of liberating mine own Will from the assaults of passion, from hindrance, from resentment, from slavery.
Thus would I fain be found employed, so that I may say to God, ‘Have I in aught transgressed thy commands? Have I in aught perverted the faculties, the senses, the natural principles that Thou didst give me? Have I ever blamed Thee or found fault with Thine administration? When it was Thy good pleasure, I fell sick - and so did other men: but my will consented. Because it was Thy pleasure, I became poor, - but my heart rejoiced. No power in the State was mine, because Thou wouldst not: such power I never desired! Hast Thou ever seen me of more doleful countenance on that account? Have I not ever drawn nigh unto Thee with cheerful look, waiting upon thy commands, attentive to Thy signals? Wilt Thou that I now depart from the great Assembly of men? I go: I give Thee all thanks, that Thou hast deemed me worthy to take part with Thee in this Assembly: to behold Thy works, to comprehend this Thine administration.’
Such I would were the subject of my thoughts, my pen, my study, when death overtakes me.
LXXXVII: Physicians, Trainers, And Wise Men
The husbandman deals with the land; physicians and trainers with the body; the wise man with his own Mind.
LXXXVIII: Lycurgus And The Angry Young Man
Which of does not admire what Lycurgus the Spartan did? A young citizen had put out his eye, and had been handed over to him by the people to be punished at his own discretion. Lycurgus abstained from all vengeance, but on the contrary instructed and made a good man of him. Producing him in public in the theatre, he said to the astonished Spartans: - ‘I received this young man at your hands full of violence and wanton insolence; I restore him to you in his right mind and fit to serve his country.’
[JRS: For a modern parallel, see a very interesting story in Jack Kornfield’s After the Ecstasy, the Laundry, p. 235-236.]
Whether you will or no, you are poorer than I!
‘What then do I lack?’
What you have not: Constancy of mind, such as Nature would have it to be: Tranquillity. Patron or no patron, what care I? But you do care. I am richer than you: I am not racked with anxiety as to what Caesar may think of me; I flatter none on that account. This is what I have, instead of vessels of gold and silver! Your vessels may be of gold, but your reason, your principles, your accepted views, your inclinations, your desires are of earthenware.
To you, all you have seems small: to me, all I have seems great. Your desire is insatiable, mine is satisfied. See children thrusting their hands into a narrow-necked jar, and striving to pull out the nuts and figs it contains: if they fill the hand, they cannot pull it out again, and then they fall to tears. - ‘Let go a few of them, and then you can draw out the rest!’ - You, too, let your desire go! Covet not many things, and you will obtain.
XCIX: The Effect Of Others On You, And The Power Of Conviction
If a man has frequent intercourse with others, either in the way of conversation, entertainment, or simple familiarity, he must either become like them, or change them to his own fashion. A live coal placed next a dead one will either kindle that or be quenched by it. Such being the risk, it is well to be cautious in admitting intimacies of this sort, remembering that one cannot rub shoulders with a soot-stained man without sharing the soot oneself. What will you do, supposing the talk turns on gladiators, or horses or prize-fighters, or (what is worse) on persons, condemning this and that, approving the other? Or suppose a man sneers or jeers or shows a malignant temper? Has any among us the skill of the lute-player, who knows at the first touch which strings are out of tune and sets the instrument right: has any of you such a power as Socrates had, in all his intercourse with men, of winning them over to his own convictions? Nay, but you must needs be swayed hither and thither by the uninstructed. How comes it then that they prove so much stronger than you? Because they speak from the fullness of the heart - their low, corrupt views are their real convictions: whereas your fine sentiments are but from the lips, outwards; that is why they are so nerveless and dead. It turns one’s stomach to listen to your exhortations, and hear of your miserable Virtue, that you prate of up and down. Thus it is that the vulgar prove too strong for you. Everywhere strength, everywhere victory waits your conviction!
C: On Discipline: Spit The Water Out!
In general, any methods of discipline applied to the body which tend to modify its desires or repulsions, are good - for ascetic ends. But if done for display, they betray at once a man who keeps an eye on outward show; who has an ulterior purpose, and is looking for spectators to shout, ‘Oh what a great man!’ This is why Apollonius so well said: ‘If you are bent upon a little private discipline, wait till you are choking with heat some day - then take a mouthful of cold water, and spit it out again, and tell no man!’
CII: As Bad Actors Cannot Sing Alone
Even as bad actors cannot sing alone, but only in chorus: so some cannot walk alone.
Man, if thou art aught, strive to walk alone and hold converse with thyself, instead of skulking in the chorus! At length think; look around thee, bestir thyself, that thou mayest know who thou art!
CIV: What Would You Do; And What Can Your Nature Bear?
You would fain be victor at the Olympic games, you say. Yes, but weigh the consequences; then and then only, lay to your hand - if it be for your profit. You must live by rule, submit to diet, abstain from dainty meats, exercise your body perforce at stated hours, in heat or in cold; drink no cold water, nor, it may be, wine. In a word, you must surrender yourself wholly to your trainer, as though to a physician.
Then in the hour of contest, you will have to delve the ground, it may chance dislocate an arm, sprain an ankle, gulp down abundance of yellow sand, be scourged with the whip - and with all this sometimes lose the victory. Count the cost - and then, if your desire still holds, try the wrestler’s life. Else let me tell you that you will be behaving like a pack of children playing now at wrestlers, now at gladiators; presently falling to trumpeting and anon to stage-playing, when the fancy takes them for what they have seen. And you are even the same: wrestler, gladiator, philosopher, orator all by turns and none of them with your whole soul. Like an ape, you mimic what you see, to one thing constant never; the thing that is familiar charms no more. This is because you never undertook aught with due consideration, nor after strictly testing and viewing it from every side; no, your choice was thoughtless; the glow of your desire had waxed cold…
Friend, bethink you first what it is that you would do, and then what your own nature is able to bear. Would you be a wrestler consider your shoulders, your thighs, your loins - not all men are formed to the same end. Think you to be a philosopher while acting as you do? Think you to go on thus eating, thus drinking, giving way in like manner to wrath and to displeasure? Nay, you must watch, you must labour; overcome certain desires; quit your familiar friends, submit to be despised by your slave, to be held in derision by them that meet you, to take the lower place in all things, in office, in positions of authority, in courts of law.
Weigh these things fully and then, if you will, lay to your hand; if as the price of these things you would gain Freedom, Tranquillity, and passionless Serenity.
Can any profit be derived from these men? Aye, from all.
‘What, even from a reviler?’
Why, tell me what profit a wrestler gains from him who exercises him beforehand? The very greatest: he trains me in the practice of endurance, of controlling my temper, of gentle ways. You deny it. What, the man who lays hold of my neck, and disciplines loins and shoulders does me good, … while he that trains me to keep my temper does me none? This is what it means, not knowing how to gain advantage from men! Is my neighbour bad? Bad to himself, but good to me: he brings my good temper, my gentleness into play. Is my father bad? Bad to himself, but good to me. This is the rod of Hermes; touch what you will with it, they say, and it becomes gold. Nay, but bring what you will and I will transmute it into Good. Bring sickness, bring death, bring poverty and reproach, bring trial for life - all these things through the rod of Hermes shall be turned to profit.
Till then these sound opinions have taken firm root in you, and you have gained a measure of strength for your security, I counsel you to be cautious in associating with the uninstructed. Else whatever impressions you receive upon the tablets of your mind in the School will day by day melt and disappear, like wax in the sun. Withdraw then somewhere far from the sun, while you have these waxen sentiments.
CIX: Not A Philosopher, If Philosophy Hasn’t Changed You
If what charms you is nothing but abstract principles, sit down and turn them over quietly in your own mind: but never dub yourself a Philosopher, nor suffer others to call you so. Say rather: He is in error; for my desires, my impulses are unaltered. I give in my adhesion to what I did before; nor has my mode of dealing with the things of sense undergone any change.
CXII: A Man Cannot Be Cast Beyond The Limits Of The World
Death? Let it come when it will, whether it smite but a part or the whole: Fly, you tell me - fly! But whither shall I fly? Can any man cast me beyond the limits of the World? It may not be! And whithersoever I go, there shall I still find Sun, Moon, and Stars; there shall I find dreams, and omens, and converse with the Gods!
Kings and tyrants have armed guards wherewith to chastise certain persons, though they be themselves evil. But to the Cynic conscience gives this power - not arms and guards. When he knows that he has watched and laboured on behalf of mankind: that sleep hath found him pure, and left him purer still: that his thoughts have been the thought of a Friend of the Gods - of a servant, yet of one that hath a part in the government of the Supreme God: that the words are ever on his lips: -
Lead me, O God, and thou, O Destiny!
As well as these: -
If this be God’s will, so let it be!
Why should he not speak boldly unto his own brethren, unto his children - in a word, unto all that are akin to him!
[Note: Cynicism was another ancient school of philosophy, with many connections to Stoicism. The Cynics, in general, sought to lessen their attachment to material things in order to make their souls freer. As one famous Cynic, Antisthenes, said, "I do not possess, in order not to be possessed." Their (spiritual) distance from many of the values and norms of their environment helped to generate our modern word ‘cynicism’, which does not do justice, however, to their true perspective and intention. - JRS]
CXXI: Pain In The School Of Philosophy
A Philosopher’s school is a Surgery: pain, not pleasure, you should have felt therein. For on entering none of you is whole. One has a shoulder out of joint, another an abscess: a third suffers from an issue, a fourth from pains in the head. And am I then to sit down and treat you to pretty sentiments and empty flourishes, so that you may applaud me and depart, with neither shoulder, nor head, nor issue, nor abscess a whit the better for your visit? Is it then for this that young men are to quit their homes, and leave parents, friends, kinsmen and substance to mouth out Bravo to your empty phrases!?
Know you not that the thing is a warfare? One man’s duty is to mount guard, another must go out to reconnoitre, a third to battle; all cannot be in one place, nor would it even be expedient. But you, instead of executing your Commander’s orders, complain if aught harsher than usual is enjoined; not understanding to what condition you are bringing the army, so far as in you lies. If all were to follow your example, none would dig a trench, none would cast a rampart around the camp, none would keep watch, or expose himself to danger; but all turn out useless for the service of war… thus it is here also. Every life is a warfare, and that long and various. You must fulfill a soldier’s duty, and obey each order at your commander’s nod: aye, if it be possible, divine what he would have done; for between that Commander and this, there is no comparison, either in might or in excellence.
CXXVI: To Be A God Man, And Happy Therein
Have you again forgotten? Know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance’ sake, but for the sake of having done right?…
‘Is there no reward then?’
Reward! Do you seek any greater reward for a good man than doing what is right and just? Yet at the Great Games you look for nothing else; there the victor’s crown you deem enough. Seems it to you so small a thing and worthless, to be a good man, and happy therein?
CXXX: It Is Not Disappearance Or Destruction, It Is Change
Remind thyself that he whom thou lovest is mortal - that what thou lovest is not thine own; it is given thee for the present, not irrevocably nor for ever, but even as a fig or a bunch of grapes at the appointed season of the year…
‘But these are words of evil omen.’ …
What, callest thou aught of evil omen save that which signifies some evil thing? Cowardice is a word of evil omen, if thou wilt, and meanness of spirit, and lamentation and mourning and shamelessness…
But do not, I pray thee, call of evil omen a word that is significant of any natural thing: - as well call of evil omen the reaping of the corn; for it means the destruction of the ears, though not of the World! - as well say that the fall of the leaf is of evil omen; that the dried fig should take the place of the green; that raisins should be made from grapes. All these are changes from a former state into another; not destruction, but an ordered economy, a fixed administration. Such is leaving home, a change of small account; such is Death, a greater change, from what now is, not to what is not, but to what is not now.
‘Shall I then no longer be?’
Not so; thou wilt be; but something different, of which the World now hath need. For thou too wert born not when thou chosest, but when the World had need of thee.
CXXXII: I Will Not Desert My Post (fragment)
Whatsoever place or post Thou assignest me, sooner will I die a thousand deaths, as Socrates said, than desert it.
Reflect that the chief source of all evils to Man, and of baseness and cowardice, is not death, but the fear of death.
Against this fear then, I pray you, harden yourself; to this let all your reasonings, your exercises, your reading tend. Then shall you know that thus alone are men set free.
CXXXVII: Travellers, And The Wise Man And God
Thus do the more cautious of travellers act. The road is said to be beset by robbers. The traveller will not venture alone, but awaits the companionship on the road of an ambassador, a quaestor or a proconsul. To him he attaches himself and thus passes by in safety. So doth the wise man in the world. Many are the companies of robbers and tyrants, many the storms, the straits, the losses of all a man holds dearest. Whither shall he fly for refuge - how shall he pass by unassailed? What companion on the road shall he await for protection? Such and such a wealthy man, of consular rank? And how shall I be profited, if he is stripped and falls to lamentation and weeping? And how if my fellow-traveller himself turns upon me and robs me? What am I to do? I will become a friend of Caesar’s! In his train none will do me wrong! In the first place - O the indignities I must endure to win distinction! O the multitude of hands there will be to rob me! And if I succeed, Caesar too is but a mortal. While should it come to pass that I offend him, whither shall I flee from his presence? To the wilderness? And may not fever await me there? What then is to be done? Cannot a fellow-traveller be found that is honest and loyal, strong and secure against surprise? Thus doth the wise man reason, considering that if he would pass through in safety, he must attach himself unto God.
‘How understandest thou attach himself to God’?
That what God wills, he should will also; that what God wills not, neither should he will.
‘How then may this come to pass?’
By considering the movements of God, and His administration.
CXLIII: How To Grieve One’s Enemy
Asked how a man should best grieve his enemy Epictetus replied, ‘By setting himself to live the noblest life himself.’
CXLVIII: God Hath Granted This Inward Freedom
To each man God hath granted this inward freedom. These are the principles that in a house create love, in a city concord, among nations peace, teaching a man gratitude towards God and cheerful confidence, wherever he may be, in dealing with outward things that he knows are neither his nor worth striving after.
If you seek Truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found Truth, you need not fear being defeated.
CL: What I Am, And What I Am Supposed To Be
What foolish talk is this? How can I any longer lay claim to right principles, if I am not content with being what I am, but am all aflutter about what I am supposed to be?
CLII: My Will Is What Comes To Pass
Whom then shall I yet fear? The lords of the Bed-chamber, lest they should shut me out? If they find me desirous of entering in, let them shut me out, if they will.
‘Then why comest thou to the door?’
Because I think it meet and right, so long as the Play lasts, to take part therein.
‘In what sense art thou not then shut out?’
Because unless I am admitted, it is not my will to enter: on the contrary, my will is simply that which comes to pass. For I esteem what God wills better than what I will. To Him will I cleave as His minister and attendant; having the same movements, the same desires, in a word the same Will as He. There is no such thing as being shut out for me, but only for them that would force their way in.
CLII: Growing Better Day By Day
But what says Socrates? - ‘One man finds pleasure in improving his land, another his horses. My pleasure lies in seeing that I myself grow better day by day.’
First study to conceal what thou art; seek wisdom a little while unto thyself. Thus grows the fruit; first, the seed must be buried in the earth for a little space; there it must be hid and slowly grow, that it may reach maturity. But if it produce the ear before the jointed stalk, it is imperfect - a thing from a garden of Adonis. Such a sorry growth art thou; thou hast blossomed too soon: the winter cold will wither thee away!
First of all, condemn the life thou art now leading: but when thou hast condemned it, do not despair of thyself - be not like them of mean spirit, who once they have yielded, abandon themselves entirely and as it were allow the torrent to sweep them away. No: learn what the wrestling masters do. Has the boy fallen? ‘Rise,’ they say, ‘wrestle again, till they strength come to thee.’ Even thus should it be with thee. For know that there is nothing more tractable than the human soul. It needs but to will, and the thing is done; the soul is set upon the right path: as on the contrary it needs but to nod over the task, and all is lost. For ruin and recovery alike are from within.
CLVII: The Critical Moment Shows The Man
It is the critical moment that shows the man. So when the crisis is upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough and stalwart antagonist. - ‘To what end?’ you ask. That you may prove the victor at the Great Games. Yet without toil and sweat this may not be!
Remember that thou art an actor in a play, and of such sort as the Author chooses, whether long or short. If it be his good pleasure to assign thee the part of a beggar, a cripple, a ruler, or a simple citizen, thine it is to play it fitly. For thy business is to act the part assigned thee, well: to choose it, is another’s.
CLXI: Keep Death And Exile Before You
Keep death and exile daily before thine eyes, with all else that men deem terrible, but more especially Death. Then wilt thou never think a mean thought, nor covet anything beyond measure.
If you are told that such an one speaks ill of you, make no defence against what was said, but answer, He surely knew not my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these only!
CLXXII: Do Not Fear Misplaced Censure
When you have decided that a thing ought to be done, and are doing it, never shun being seen doing it, even though the multitude should be likely to judge the matter amiss. For if you are not acting rightly, shun the act itself; if rightly, however, why fear misplaced censure?
CLXXXII: The Rich Man Is The Content Man
Asked, Who is the rich man? Epictetus replied, ‘He who is content.’
CLXXXIV: Lead Me, O God, And Thou, O Destiny
On all occasions these thoughts should be at hand: -
Lead me, O God, and Thou, O Destiny,
Be what it may the goal appointed me,
Bravely I’ll follow; nay, and if I would not,
I’d prove a coward, yet must follow still!
Again:
Who to Necessity doth bow aright,
Is learn’d in wisdom and the things of God.
Once more: -
Crito, if this be God’s will, so let it be. As for me, Anytus and Melitus can indeed put me to death, but injure me, never!
[Note: "Lead Me O God…" and "Who to Necessity…" are quotes, by Epictetus, of Cleanthes; "Crito, if this be God’s will…" is a famous quote by Socrates, while facing death. Epictetus honored the wisdom and courage of both men. - JRS]
CLXXXVI: Care And Preparation, And Acceptance
It is hard to combine and unite these two qualities, the carefulness of one who is affected by circumstances, and the intrepidity of one who heeds them not. But it is not impossible: else were happiness also impossible. We should act as we do in sea-faring.
‘What can I do?’ - Choose the master, the crew, the day, the opportunity. Then comes a sudden storm. What matters it to me? My part has been fully done. The matter is in the hands of another - the Master of the ship. The ship is foundering. What then have I to do? I do the only thing that remains to me - to be drowned without fear, without a cry, without upbraiding God, but knowing that what has been born must likewise perish. For I am not eternity, but a human being, - a part of the whole, as an hour is part of the day. I must come like the hour, and like the hour must pass!
CLXXXVIII: The Peace That Comes From God
If a man has this peace - not the peace proclaimed by Caesar (how indeed should he have it to proclaim?) nay, but the peace proclaimed by God through reason, will not that suffice him when alone, when he beholds and reflects: - Now can no evil happen unto me; for me there is no robber, for me no earthquake; all things are full of peace, full of tranquillity; neither highway nor city nor gathering of men, neither neighbour nor comrade can do me hurt. Another supplies my food, whose care it is; another my raiment, another hath given me perceptions of sense and primary conceptions. And when He supplies my necessities no more, it is that He is sounding the retreat, that he hath opened the door, and is saying to thee, Come! - Whither? To nought that thou needest fear, but to the friendly kindred elements whence thou didst spring. Whatsoever of fire is in thee, unto fire shall return; whatsoever of earth, unto earth; of spirit, unto spirit; of water, unto water. There is no Hades, no fabled rivers of Sighs, of Lamentation, or of Fire: but all things are full of Beings spiritual and divine. With thoughts like these, beholding the Sun, Moon, and Stars, enjoying earth and sea, a man is neither helpless nor alone!
CLXXXIX: What Would I Be Found Doing When Overtaken By Death?
What wouldst thou be found doing when overtaken by Death? If I might choose, I would be found doing some deed of true humanity, of wide import, beneficent and noble. But if I may not be found engaged in aught so lofty, let me hope at least for this - what none may hinder, what is surely in my power - that I may be found raising up in myself that which had fallen; learning to deal more wisely with the things of sense; working out my own tranquillity, and thus rendering that which is its due to every relation of life…
If death surprise me thus employed, it is enough if I can stretch forth my hands to God and say, ‘The faculties which I received at thy hands for apprehending this thine Administration, I have not neglected. As far as in me lay, I have done Thee no dishonour. Behold how I have used the senses, the primary conceptions which Thou gavest me. Have I ever laid anything to Thy charge? Have I ever murmured at aught that came to pass, or wished it otherwise? Have I in anything transgressed the relations of life? For that Thou didst beget me, I thank Thee for that Thou hast given: for the time during which I have used the things that were Thine, it suffices me. Take them back and place them wherever Thou wilt! They were all Thine, and Thou gavest them me.’ - If a man depart thus minded, is it not enough? What life is fairer or more noble, what end happier than this?
Fragments Attributed To Epictetus
[Note: Some of the following fragments probably originated from other sources, and may have become attributed to Epictetus as a result of being quoted by him, and for that reason associated with him, by writers who sought to record his teachings. Hastings Crossley has included them in his volume because of "their intrinsic interest." - JRS]
It is a shame that one who sweetens his drink with the gifts of the bee, should embitter God’s gift Reason with vice.
Crows pick out the eyes of the dead, when the dead have no longer need of them; but flatterers mar the soul of the living, and her eyes they blind.
Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.
Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one that is longer but of less account!
Exceed due measure, and the most delightful things become the least delightful.
No man is free who is not master of himself.
A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope.
Choose the life that is noblest, for custom can make it sweet to thee.
Even as the Sun doth not wait for prayers and incantations to rise, but shines forth and is welcomed by all: so thou also wait not for clapping of hands and shouts and praise to do thy duty; nay, do good of thine own accord, and thou wilt be loved like the Sun.
Let no man think that he is loved by any who loveth none.
If thou rememberest that God standeth by to behold and visit all that thou doest; whether in the body or in the soul, thou surely wilt not err in any prayer or deed; and thou shalt have God to dwell with thee.