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Discourses and Selected Writings (Penguin Classics)

Epictetus and Robert Dobbin

Last accessed on Monday June 12, 2023

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many people who appear to be in dire circumstances are actually happy provided they deal with their situation bravely; others, regardless of how many possessions they have, are miserable, because they do not know how to use the gifts of fortune wisely.1

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Epictetus makes two points with an emphasis distinctly his own: (1) that rational animals can hold off acting on impressions until they are scrutinized and assessed; and (2) if they are judged unreasonable – i.e. irrational or merely impractical – we can and should withhold our assent from them.

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‘Don’t let the force of an impression when it first hits you knock you off your feet; just say to it, “Hold on a moment; let me see who you are and what you represent. Let me put you to the test”’ (II 18, 24).

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The ninth-century philosopher al-Kindi (according to the Muslim historian Ibn al-Nadim (d. 955), ‘the best man of his time, called The Philosopher of the Arabs’)2 was appointed by the Abbasid Caliph al-Ma’mun to the House of Wisdom, a centre for the translation of Greek philosophical and scientific texts in Baghdad. His own work of ethics, ‘On the Art of Dispelling Sorrows’, shows the unmistakable influence of Stoicism in general and Epictetus in particular. There he lays emphasis on the importance of freedom from the world and highlights humans’ status as agents, who through their ultimate independence are responsible for their own happiness and independent of others. The weight Epictetus puts on the ephemeral nature of worldly goods is recalled; from chapter 7 of the Enchiridion al-Kindi borrows the comparison of earthly life to a ship which has, during the course of its voyage, temporarily anchored at an island and allowed its passengers to disembark; passengers who linger too long on the island risk being left behind when the ship sets sail again. The implicit warning, as in Epictetus, is that we must not become attached to material things (represented by the island and its foodstuffs), because they will invariably be taken away from us when the ship relaunches.

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[Epictetus] believes that God gave man the means to fulfill all his obligations; that these means are within his power, that happiness is attained through what we are capable of, this being the reason God gave them to us. Our mind cannot be forced to believe what is false, nor our will compelled to love something that makes it unhappy. These two powers are therefore free, and it is through them that we can become perfect.

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undertook to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to alter my desires rather than change the order of the world, and to accustom myself to believe that nothing is entirely in our power except our own thoughts … Here, I think, is the secret of those ancient philosophers who were able to free themselves from the tyranny of fortune, or, despite suffering and poverty, to rival the gods in happiness.

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Psychologist Albert Ellis has acknowledged Epictetus as one of the chief inspirations behind the development of Rational-Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT), arguably the foremost modality in counselling today.

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How a person can preserve their proper character in any situation [1] Man, the rational animal, can put up with anything except what seems to him irrational; whatever is rational is tolerable.

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‘But how do we know what is in keeping with our character?’

Note:Dharma

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those few who think that they are born for fidelity, respect and confidence in their use of impressions entertain no mean or ignoble thoughts about themselves, while the majority does the opposite.

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what else is a spiteful, malicious man except a fox, or something even lower and less dignified?

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Where is progress, then? If there is anyone who renounces externals and attends instead to their character, cultivating and perfecting it so that it agrees with nature, making it honest and trustworthy, elevated, free, unchecked and undeterred; [19] and if they’ve learned that whoever desires or avoids things outside their control cannot be free or faithful, but has to shift and fluctuate right along with them, subject to anyone with the power to furnish or deprive them of these externals; [20] and if from the moment they get up in the morning they adhere to their ideals, eating and bathing like a person of integrity, putting their principles into practice in every situation they face – the way a runner does when he applies the principles of running, or a singer those of musicianship [21] – that is where you will see true progress embodied, and find someone who has not wasted their time making the journey here from home. [22] But anyone whose sole passion is reading books, and who does little else besides, having moved here for this – my advice for them is to go back home immediately and attend to business there, [23] because they left home for nothing. A student should practise how to expunge from his life sighs and sorrow, grief and disappointment, exclamations like ‘poor me’ and ‘alas’; [24] he should learn what death is, as well as exile, jail and hemlock, so at the end of the day he can say, like Socrates in prison, ‘Dear Crito, if it pleases the gods, so be it,’5 – instead of, ‘Poor me, an old man – is this what old age held in store for me?’ [25] Don’t imagine that I am referring to anyone humble or obscure, either; Priam says it, so does Oedipus. In fact, all the kings of legend can be found saying it. [26] For what else are tragedies but the ordeals of people who have come to value externals, tricked out in tragic verse?

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If a man objects to truths that are all too evident, it is no easy task finding arguments that will change his mind.

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You have been given fortitude, courage and patience. [29] Why should I worry about what happens if I am armed with the virtue of fortitude?

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‘But my nose is running!’ What do you have hands for, idiot, if not to wipe it?

Note:Ramos

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What would have become of Hercules, do you think, if there had been no lion, hydra, stag or boar – and no savage criminals to rid the world of? [33] What would he have done in the absence of such challenges?

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There you sit, worrying that certain events might happen, already upset and in a state about your present circumstances.

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the only logical step is to do as Socrates did, never replying to the question of where he was from with, ‘I am Athenian,’ or ‘I am from Corinth,’ but always, ‘I am a citizen of the world.’

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men who are meek and cowardly, though, there is no option but to write letters for them as if they were already dead.

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such a person amounts to no more than a carcass and a little blood. If he were anything more, he would realize that no one is ever unhappy because of someone else.

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Whenever we do something wrong, then, from now on we will not blame anything except the opinion on which it’s based; and we will try to root out wrong opinions with more determination than we remove tumours or infections from the body.

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Madness and freedom are poles apart. [11] ‘But I want my wishes realized, never mind the reason behind them.’ [12] Now, that’s madness, that’s insanity. Freedom is something good and valuable; to arbitrarily wish for things to happen that arbitrarily seem to you best∗ is not good, it’s disgraceful.

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When you are by yourself you should call it peace and liberty, and consider yourself the gods’ equal. When you’re with a large group you shouldn’t say you’re in a mob or crowd, but a guest at a feast or festival – and in that spirit learn to enjoy it.

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You should thank the gods for making you strong enough to survive what you cannot control, and only responsible for what you can. [33] The gods have released you from accountability for your parents, your siblings, your body, your possessions – for death and for life itself. [34] They made you responsible only for what is in your power – the proper use of impressions. [35] So why take on the burden of matters which you cannot answer for? You are only making unnecessary problems for yourself.

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If you must be affected by other people’s misfortunes, show them pity instead of contempt. Drop this readiness to hate and take offence.

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As long as you honour material things, direct your anger at yourself rather than the thief or adulterer.

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[8] A person’s own thoughts unnerve them. If a tyrant threatens to chain our leg, whoever holds his leg in high regard will beg for mercy, whereas the person who cares more for his character will answer back, “Go ahead and chain it, if that’s what you want.”’

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Now who, I ask you, has ever offered sacrifice for right desires, or for impulses in agreement with nature? We only thank the gods, it seems, for what we popularly suppose are the good things in life.

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for what purpose did nature arm us with reason? To make the correct use of impressions. And what is reason if not a collection of individual impressions?

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Therefore, the first and most important duty of the philosopher is to test impressions, choosing between them and only deploying those that have passed the test.

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compare your attitude to going blind with your attitude about being mentally in the dark. You will realize, I think, how inappropriate your values really are.

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When someone is properly grounded in life, they shouldn’t have to look outside themselves for approval.

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‘I want everyone I meet to admire me, to follow me around shouting, “What a great philosopher!” ’ [4] And who exactly are these people that you want to be admired by? Aren’t they the same people you are in the habit of calling crazy? And is this your life ambition, then – to win the approval of lunatics?

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The operations of the will are in our power; not in our power are the body, the body’s parts, property, parents, siblings, children, country or friends.

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The chief thing to remember is that the door is open.39 Don’t be a greater coward than children, who are ready to announce, ‘I won’t play any more.’ Say, ‘I won’t play any more,’ when you grow weary of the game, and be done with it. But if you stay, don’t carp.

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Is there smoke in the house? If it’s not suffocating, I will stay indoors; if it proves too much, I’ll leave. Always remember – the door is open.

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When a snake pulls back its head, right away I think, ‘Hit it just there, on the part that it’s protecting.’ In the same way you may be sure that whatever you are seen to protect, that will become your enemy’s focus of attack. [25] Keep this in mind, then there will be no one you will need to fear or flatter.

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What, for instance, does it mean to be insulted? [29] Stand by a rock and insult it, and what have you accomplished? If someone responds to insult like a rock, what has the abuser gained with his invective? If, however, he has his victim’s weakness to exploit, then his efforts are worth his while.

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God has fixed this law, and says, ‘If you want something good, get it from yourself.’

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‘These are not the circumstances that I want.’ Is it up to you to choose them? You have been given that particular body, these particular parents and brothers, this particular social position and place to live. You come to me hoping that I can somehow change these circumstances for you, not even conscious of the assets that are already yours that make it possible to cope with any situation you face. [40]

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‘Remind me what you thought was good.’ ‘The will and the right use of impressions.’

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Then that paradox will no longer seem so paradoxical or absurd – that we should be confident and cautious at the same time: confident in relation to things outside the will, cautious about things within.

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Whenever externals are more important to you than your own integrity, then be prepared to serve them the remainder of your life.

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Epictetus was saying that, as human beings, we are born to be faithful to one another, and that whoever denies this denies their humanity.

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in life our first job is this, to divide and distinguish things into two categories: externals I cannot control, but the choices I make with regard to them I do control.

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What other work of art comes ready equipped with the very powers the artist displayed in making it? Do marble statues? No, nor do bronze, gold or ivory ones. The Athena of Phidias, once its arm was raised to support the statue of Victory, has maintained that pose for the duration of its long existence. Zeus’ works, on the other hand, are living, breathing creatures, with the power of perception and judgement.

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If you are transformed from a decent, social human being into some mean, snarling, dangerous beast, is there no loss involved? Or do you have to lose money before you feel penalized? Is losing money the only loss that counts with us?

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Aren’t we born with a sense of fairness? ‘We are.’ If you destroy it, is there no harm, is nothing sacrificed, don’t we lose something dear? [23] Don’t we have an innate sense of honour, a sense of benevolence, a sense of kindness and compassion? Well, if someone willingly parts with these sensibilities, do you suppose they go unpunished and unhurt?

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‘Well, since that guy hurt himself with the injustice he did me, shouldn’t I wrong him in order to hurt myself in retaliation?’ [27] So why don’t we actually picture it to ourselves this way? Instead, we see injury only where physical or financial loss is incurred, whereas if the loss stems from our own choices, then we don’t suspect any harm has been done.

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Whenever I see a person suffering from nervousness, I think, well, what can he expect? If he had not set his sights on things outside man’s control, his nervousness would end at once.

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And you cannot suffer for another person’s fault. So don’t worry about the behaviour of others.

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we picture the philosopher’s goal more or less as follows: bring the will in line with events, so that nothing happens contrary to our wishes and, conversely, nothing fails to happen that we want to happen.

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But say to someone, ‘Your desires are unhealthy, your powers of aversion are weak, your plans are incoherent, your impulses are at odds with nature and your system of values is false and confused,’ – and off they go alleging slander.

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He is like a musician who knows how to play, who sings well, dresses nicely – and still experiences nerves before taking the stage. Music, he knows; but he does not know what an audience is, or what good and bad reviews amount to. [10] He doesn’t even understand his own anxiety, whether it’s our concern or another’s, and whether it can be managed. The result is that, if he wins applause, he returns home full of himself; but if he is booed, he shrivels as if the air has been let out of him and sinks down, deflated.

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look at children: their nanny leaves them and they begin to cry; but give them a cake and they’ve forgotten all about their nanny.

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Every day you should put the ideas in action that protect against attachment to externals such as individual people, places or institutions – even your own body.

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what difference does it make what a person is enslaved to, and cannot live without? You’re no different from a teenager mooning over a girl when you ache for your familiar haunts, your club, your old gang of friends and former way of life.

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it’s time you stopped crying for your nurse and mother.∗ [40] ‘But by leaving them I make them unhappy.’ You think you are the cause of their unhappiness? No; the cause of their disturbance is the same as yours: judgements. Overhaul your judgements and, if they’re smart, they will overhaul theirs. Otherwise, their unhappiness will be of their own making.

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set your own house in order. Cast out of your mind – not Procrustes or Sciron46 – but sorrow, fear, lust, envy, spite, greed, petulance and over-indulgence. [46] Getting rid of these, too, requires looking to God for help, trusting him alone, and submitting to his direction. [47] Then if you’re not willing to do this – all tears and agitation – you will serve someone physically more powerful than you, and continue to look outside yourself for happiness, fated never to find it. And that is because you look for it in the wrong place, forgetting to look where it really lies.

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So if you like doing something, do it regularly; if you don’t like doing something, make a habit of doing something different.

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The same goes for moral inclinations. When you get angry, you should know that you aren’t guilty of an isolated lapse, you’ve encouraged a trend and thrown fuel on the fire. [6] When you can’t resist sex with someone, don’t think of it as a temporary setback; you’ve fed your weakness and made it harder to uproot.

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passions of the soul; they leave certain scars and blisters behind. And unless you remove them well, the next time you’re flogged on the same spot those blisters will be open wounds.

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If you lose the struggle once, but insist that next time it will be different, then repeat the same routine – be sure that in the end you will be in so sad and weakened a condition that you won’t even realize your mistakes, you’ll begin to rationalize your misbehaviour. [32] You will be living testimony to Hesiod’s verse: ‘Make a bad beginning and you’ll contend with troubles ever after.’61

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Everything can be classified as good, bad or indifferent. The virtues, and the things that share in them, are good. The vices and what shares in them are bad. Everything in between is indifferent, like wealth, health, life, death and poverty.’

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It is a universal law – have no illusions – that every creature alive is attached to nothing so much as to its own self-interest.

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Just ask whether they put their self-interest in externals or in moral choice.

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‘But she has looked after me for such a long time; did she not love me?’ ‘How do you know, stupid, if she hasn’t looked after you the way she polishes her shoes, say, or tends to her farm animals? How do you know she won’t discard you like a broken glass once your value as a utensil is used up?’

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Never be harsh, remember Plato’s dictum: ‘Every soul is deprived of the truth against its will.’83

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An eye, when open, has no option but to see. [12] The decision whether to look at a particular man’s wife, however, and how, belongs to the will.

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The raw material of the good man is his mind – his goal being to respond to impressions the way nature intended. [2] As a general rule, nature designed the mind to assent to what is true, dissent from what is false and suspend judgement in doubtful cases. Similarly, it conditioned the mind to desire what is good, to reject what is bad and to regard with indifference what is neither

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It follows that the good is preferred over every human association. I care nothing for my father – only for the good.

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am I supposed to step aside and abandon my good just so you can have yours? Why? ‘Because I’m your father.’ But not the good. ‘I’m your brother.’ But not the good. [8] If, however, we locate the good in soundness of character, then it becomes good to maintain these relationships. Whoever gives up some material things also wins the good.

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Outside school, whenever we see a person in mourning, we think to ourselves, ‘She’s crushed.’ If we happen to spy a consul, we think, ‘There goes one lucky man.’ The sight of a person in exile elicits ‘How tragic’ in response; a beggar prompts us to think, ‘Poor guy, he doesn’t even have money enough for food.’ [18] These are the insidious opinions we need to concentrate hard to expunge. What, after all, are sighing and crying, except opinions? What is ‘misfortune’? An opinion. And sectarian strife, dissension, blame and accusation, ranting and raving – [19] they all are mere opinion, the opinion that good and bad lie outside us.

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when you engage in the same things as the masses, you lower yourself to their level.

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‘He lamented these events.’ ‘That is in his control – and bad.’ ‘He withstood it like a man.’ ‘That is in his control – and good.’

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remember that if you consort with someone covered in dirt you can hardly avoid getting a little grimy yourself.

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what are you going to do if your friend starts nattering about gladiators, horses and sports stars; or, even worse, if he starts gossiping about shared acquaintances: ‘He’s good, she’s bad, it’s good this happened, it’s too bad about that …’?

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why are they stronger than you? Because they talk such garbage from conviction, whereas your fine talk is no more than lip service.

Note:Dad

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Conviction is quite a potent and irresistible force. [9] So until those fine principles take root in you so that you can begin to rely on them a little, I advise you to use discretion in associating with such people.

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Keep well out of the sun, then, so long as your principles are as pliant as wax.

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This is why philosophers say that we should even leave our native land, since old habits pull us back and make it hard to embark on a new routine;

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Every circumstance represents an opportunity

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A bad father, likewise, is bad for himself, but for me represents a blessing.

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Did Priam, with his fifty worthless sons, or Danaus, or Aeolus, contribute more to society than Homer?

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First, tell yourself what you want to be, then act your part accordingly. This, after all, is what we find to be the rule in just about every other field. [2] Athletes decide first what they want to be, then proceed to do what is necessary.

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All our efforts must be directed towards an end, or we will act in vain. If it is not the right end, we will fail utterly.

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When you find your direction, check to make sure that it is the right one. [7] Is your goal to educate or be praised?

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Free is the person who lives as he wishes and cannot be coerced, impeded or compelled, whose impulses cannot be thwarted, who always gets what he desires and never has to experience what he would rather avoid.

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No bad person, then, lives the way he wants, and no bad man is free. [4] Who wants to live life experiencing sadness, envy and pity, being frustrated in their desires and liable to experience what they want to avoid?

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If your lovesick condition isn’t slavery, then what is? Didn’t you ever risk going out at night where you didn’t want to go, spend more money than you had intended, say things in the course of the evening in accents of misery and woe, put up with being mocked, and finally locked out?

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But until he succeeds in suppressing his lust and anxiety, how is he really free?

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For this reason we will only call those animals free that refuse to tolerate captivity and escape instead by dying as soon as they are caught.

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the same thing, really, that we all want: to live in peace, to be happy, to do as we like and never be foiled or forced to act against our wishes.

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