A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion
For whatever of these things results, it is in my power to derive
benefit from it.
XIX.
You can be invincible, if you enter into no contest in which it is not
in your power to conquer. Take care then when you observe a man honored
before others or possessed of great power or highly esteemed for any
reason, not to suppose him happy, and be not carried away by the
appearance. For if the nature of the good is in our power, neither envy
nor jealousy will have a place in us. But you yourself will not wish to
be a general or senator ([Greek: prutanis]) or consul, but a free man:
and there is only one way to this, to despise (care not for) the things
which are not in our power.
XX.
Remember that it is not he who reviles you or strikes you, who insults
you, but it is your opinion about these things as being insulting. When
then a man irritates you, you must know that it is your own opinion
which has irritated you. Therefore especially try not to be carried
away by the appearance. For if you once gain time and delay, you will
more easily master yourself.
XXI.
Let death and exile and every other thing which appears dreadful be
daily before your eyes; but most of all death: and you will never think
of anything mean nor will you desire anything extravagantly.
XXII.
If you desire philosophy, prepare yourself from the beginning to be
ridiculed, to expect that many will sneer at you, and say, He has all
at once returned to us as a philosopher; and whence does he get this
supercilious look for us? Do you not show a supercilious look; but hold
on to the things which seem to you best as one appointed by God to this
station. And remember that if you abide in the same principles, these
men who first ridiculed will afterwards admire you; but if you shall
have been overpowered by them, you will bring on yourself double
ridicule.
XXIII.
If it should ever happen to you to be turned to externals in order to
please some person, you must know that you have lost your purpose in
life. Be satisfied then in everything with being a philosopher; and if
you wish to seem also to any person to be a philosopher, appear so to
yourself, and you will be able to do this.
XXIV.
Let not these thoughts afflict you, I shall live unhonored and be
nobody nowhere. For if want of honor ([Greek: atimia]) is an evil, you
cannot be in evil through the means (fault) of another any more than
you can be involved in anything base. Is it then your business to
obtain the rank of a magistrate, or to be received at a banquet? By no
means. How then can this be want of honor (dishonor)? And how will you
be nobody nowhere, when you ought to be somebody in those things only
which are in your power, in which indeed it is permitted to you to be a
man of the greatest worth? But your friends will be without assistance!
What do you mean by being without assistance? They will not receive
money from you, nor will you make them Roman citizens. Who then told
you that these are among the things which are in our power, and not in
the power of others? And who can give to another what he has not
himself? Acquire money then, your friends say, that we also may have
something. If I can acquire money and also keep myself modest and
faithful and magnanimous, point out the way, and I will acquire it. But
if you ask me to lose the things which are good and my own, in order
that you may gain the things which are not good, see how unfair and
silly you are. Besides, which would you rather have, money or a
faithful and modest friend? For this end then rather help me to be such
a man, and do not ask me to do this by which I shall lose that
character. But my country, you say, as far as it depends on me, will be
without my help. I ask again, what help do you mean? It will not have
porticos or baths through you. And what does this mean? For it is not
furnished with shoes by means of a smith, nor with arms by means of a
shoemaker. But it is enough if every man fully discharges the work that
is his own: and if you provided it with another citizen faithful and
modest, would you not be useful to it? Yes. Then you also cannot be
useless to it. What place then, you say, shall I hold in the city?
Whatever you can, if you maintain at the same time your fidelity and
modesty. But if when you wish to be useful to the state, you shall lose
these qualities, what profit could you be to it, if you were made
shameless and faithless?
XXV.
Has any man been preferred before you at a banquet, or in being
saluted, or in being invited to a consultation? If these things are
good, you ought to rejoice that he has obtained them; but if bad, be
not grieved because you have not obtained them. And remember that you
cannot, if you do not the same things in order to obtain what is not in
our own power, be considered worthy of the same (equal) things. For how
can a man obtain an equal share with another when he does not visit a
man’s doors as that other man does; when he does not attend him when he
goes abroad, as the other man does; when he does not praise (flatter)
him as another does? You will be unjust then and insatiable, if you do
not part with the price, in return for which those things are sold, and
if you wish to obtain them for nothing. Well, what is the price of
lettuces? An obolus perhaps. If then a man gives up the obolus, and
receives the lettuces, and if you do not give up the obolus and do not
obtain the lettuces, do not suppose that you receive less than he who
has got the lettuces; for as he has the lettuces, so you have the
obolus which you did not give. In the same way then in the other matter
also you have not been invited to a man’s feast, for you did not give
to the host the price at which the supper is sold; but he sells it for
praise (flattery), he sells it for personal attention. Give then the
price, if it is for your interest, for which it is sold. But if you
wish both not to give the price and to obtain the things, you are
insatiable and silly. Have you nothing then in place of the supper? You
have indeed, you have the not flattering of him, whom you did not
choose to flatter; you have the not enduring of the man when he enters
the room.
XXVI.
We may learn the wish (will) of nature from the things in which we do
not differ from one another: for instance, when your neighbor’s slave
has broken his cup, or anything else, we are ready to say forthwith,
that it is one of the things which happen. You must know then that when
your cup also is broken, you ought to think as you did when your
neighbor’s cup was broken. Transfer this reflection to greater things
also. Is another man’s child or wife dead? There is no one who would
not say, This is an event incident to man. But when a man’s own child
or wife is dead, forthwith he calls out, Woe to me, how wretched I am!
But we ought to remember how we feel when we hear that it has happened
to others.
XXVII.
As a mark is not set up for the purpose of missing the aim, so neither
does the nature of evil exist in the world.
XXVIII.
If any person was intending to put your body in the power of any man
whom you fell in with on the way, you would be vexed; but that you put
your understanding in the power of any man whom you meet, so that if he
should revile you, it is disturbed and troubled, are you not ashamed at
this?
XXIX.
In every act observe the things which come first, and those which
follow it; and so proceed to the act. If you do not, at first you will
approach it with alacrity, without having thought of the things which
will follow; but afterwards, when certain base (ugly) things have shown
themselves, you will be ashamed. A man wishes to conquer at the Olympic
games. I also wish indeed, for it is a fine thing. But observe both the
things which come first, and the things which follow; and then begin
the act. You must do everything according to rule, eat according to
strict orders, abstain from delicacies, exercise yourself as you are
bid at appointed times, in heat, in cold, you must not drink cold
water, nor wine as you choose; in a word, you must deliver yourself up
to the exercise master as you do to the physician, and then proceed to
the contest. And sometimes you will strain the hand, put the ankle out
of joint, swallow much dust, sometimes be flogged, and after all this
be defeated. When you have considered all this, if you still choose, go
to the contest: if you do not you will behave like children, who at one
time play at wrestlers, another time as flute players, again as
gladiators, then as trumpeters, then as tragic actors. So you also will
be at one time an athlete, at another a gladiator, then a rhetorician,
then a philosopher, but with your whole soul you will be nothing at
all; but like an ape you imitate everything that you see, and one thing
after another pleases you. For you have not undertaken anything with
consideration, nor have you surveyed it well; but carelessly and with
cold desire. Thus some who have seen a philosopher and having heard one
speak, as Euphrates speaks—and who can speak as he does?—they wish to
be philosophers themselves also. My man, first of all consider what
kind of thing it is; and then examine your own nature, if you are able
to sustain the character. Do you wish to be a pentathlete or a
wrestler? Look at your arms, your thighs, examine your loins. For
different men are formed by nature for different things. Do you think
that if you do these things, you can eat in the same manner, drink in
the same manner, and in the same manner loathe certain things? You must
pass sleepless nights, endure toil, go away from your kinsmen, be
despised by a slave, in everything have the inferior part, in honor, in
office, in the courts of justice, in every little matter. Consider
these things, if you would exchange for them, freedom from passions,
liberty, tranquillity. If not, take care that, like little children,
you be not now a philosopher, then a servant of the publicani, then a
rhetorician, then a procurator (manager) for Cæsar. These things are
not consistent. You must be one man, either good or bad. You must
either cultivate your own ruling faculty, or external things. You must
either exercise your skill on internal things or on external things;
that is you must either maintain the position of a philosopher or that
of a common person.
XXX.
Duties are universally measured by relations ([Greek: tais schsesi]).
Is a man a father? The precept is to take care of him, to yield to him
in all things, to submit when he is reproachful, when he inflicts
blows. But suppose that he is a bad father. Were you then by nature
made akin to a good father? No; but to a father. Does a brother wrong
you? Maintain then your own position towards him, and do not examine
what he is doing, but what you must do that your will shall be
conformable to nature. For another will not damage you, unless you
choose: but you will be damaged then when you shall think that you are
damaged. In this way then you will discover your duty from the relation
of a neighbor, from that of a citizen, from that of a general, if you
are accustomed to contemplate the relations.
XXXI.
As to piety towards the gods you must know that this is the chief
thing, to have right opinions about them, to think that they exist, and
that they administer the All well and justly; and you must fix yourself
in this principle (duty), to obey them, and to yield to them in
everything which happens, and voluntarily to follow it as being
accomplished by the wisest intelligence. For if you do so, you will
never either blame the gods, nor will you accuse them of neglecting
you. And it is not possible for this to be done in any other way than
by withdrawing from the things which are not in our power, and by