How to Know When a Man Is Upset at You

If a man would pursue Philosophy, his commencement job is to throw away conceit. For it is impossible for a man to begin to larn what he has a conceit that he already knows.

Epictetus (c. 55 – c. 135 Advertising), born a slave, was a Greek Stoic philosopher. The name given by his parents, if 1 was given, is not known. The word epiktetos in Greek simply means "caused".

Quotes [edit]

Discourses [edit]

It is difficulties that show what men are.

First say to yourself what you would be; so do what you have to do.

• To the rational being but the irrational is unendurable, but the rational is endurable.
  • Variant translation: To a reasonable animal, that lone is insupportable which is unreasonable; merely everything reasonable may be supported.
    • Book I, ch. two.

• "But to exist hanged—is that not unendurable?" Nonetheless, when a man feels that it is reasonable, he goes off and hangs himself.
  • Book I, ch. 2.

• Nonetheless God hath not only granted these faculties, past which nosotros may comport every event without beingness depressed or broken by it, but like a good prince and a true father, hath placed their do above restraint, coercion, or hindrance, and wholly without our own control.
  • Book I, ch. vi.

• In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor hurting, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing whatever action, but our in opinions and principles.
  • Volume I, ch. half dozen.

• Reason is not measured by size or height, but past principle.
  • Book I, ch. 12.

• O slavish man! volition you non bear with your own brother, who has God for his Male parent, as being a son from the same stock, and of the same loftier descent? But if you run a risk to exist placed in some superior station, will yous presently fix yourself upwards for a tyrant?
  • Volume I, ch. 13.

• When you lot close your doors, and make darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; nay, God is within, and your genius is inside. And what need accept they of calorie-free to see what yous are doing?
  • Book I, ch. 14.

• No thing great is created suddenly, whatsoever more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I reply yous that in that location must exist time. Let it first blossom, and then bear fruit, then ripen.
  • Book I, ch. 15.

• Whatever ane thing in the cosmos is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an apprehensive and grateful mind.
  • Book I, ch. 16.

• Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, the part of a swan.
  • Book I, ch. 16.

• Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought non itself to be left in disorder.
  • Book I, ch. 17.

• If what the philosophers say exist true,—that all men's actions keep from one source; that equally they assent from a persuasion that a thing is then, and dissent from a persuasion that it is not, and suspend their judgment from a persuasion that it is uncertain,—and so likewise they seek a thing from a persuasion that information technology is for their advantage.
  • Book I, ch. 18.

• Practice yourself, for heaven'southward sake, in picayune things; and thence continue to greater.
  • Volume I, ch. 18.

• It is unlikely that the expert of a snail should reside in its shell: and then is it likely that the proficient of a human being should?
  • Book I, ch. 20.

• Every art and every faculty contemplates certain things equally its principal objects.
  • Book I, ch. 20.

• Why, then, practise you walk as if y'all had swallowed a ramrod?
  • Book I, ch. 21.

• When one maintains his proper mental attitude in life, he does not long later on externals. What would yous have, O man?
  • Volume I, ch. 21.

• Information technology is difficulties that show what men are.
  • Volume I, ch. 24.

• If nosotros are not stupid or insincere when we say that the adept or ill of homo lies inside his own volition, and that all beside is zilch to u.s.a., why are we however troubled?
  • Book I, ch. 25.

• "If the room is smoky, if merely moderately, I will stay; if there is too much smoke I will go. Remember this, keep a firm concord on it, the door is always open."
  • Book I, ch. 25.

• In theory in that location is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; merely in life in that location are many things to describe u.s. aside.
  • Book I, ch. 26.

• Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to exist; or they are, and do not announced to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise human being's task.
  • Volume I, ch. 27.

• For on these matters we should not trust the multitude who say that none ought to be educated only the gratis, only rather to philosophers, who say that the educated lonely are free.
  • Variant: ...Just the educated are complimentary.
  • Book Two, ch. 1.

• For it is not death or pain that is to be feared, just the fearfulness of pain or death.
  • Variant: For death or pain is not formidable, but the fear of pain or expiry.
  • Volume Two, ch. 1

• Shall I bear witness you the sinews of a philosopher? "What sinews are those?" — A will undisappointed; evils avoided; powers daily exercised, careful resolutions; unerring decisions.
  • Book Two, ch. 8.

• What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to acquire that which he thinks he already knows.
  • Book II, ch. 17.

• Whatsoever y'all would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice information technology, merely accustom yourself to something else.
  • Book II, ch. 18.

• If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.
  • Book Two, ch. 18.

• Be not swept off your feet by the vividness of the impression, but say, "Impression, await for me a little. Let me run into what you are and what you lot stand for. Let me try you."
  • Book II, ch. 18, Reported in Bartlett'due south Quotations (1919) as "Exist not hurried away by excitement, just say, "Semblance, expect for me a little".

• Ii principles we should always have ready — that there is zippo good or evil save in the volition; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them.
  • Book III, ch. x.

• For he who is unmusical is a kid in music; he who is without letters is a kid in learning; he who is untaught, is a child in life.
  • Book Iii, ch. 19.

• Τίς εἶναι θέλεις, σαυτῷ πρῶτον εἰπέ: εἶθ' οὕτως ποίει ἃ ποιεῖς.
  • Commencement say to yourself what y'all would be; and and so exercise what you have to do.
  • Book III, ch. 23.

The Enchiridion (c. 135) [edit]

as translated by Elizabeth Carter

• Some things are in our control and others non. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, want, disfavor, and, in a word, whatever are our ain actions. Things not in our command are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one give-and-take, whatever are not our own actions. (1).

• Men are disturbed, not by things, just by the principles and notions which they grade concerning things. (5).^[1]

• It is the human activity of an ill-instructed human to blame others for his own bad status; information technology is the act of one who has begun to exist instructed, to lay the arraign on himself; and of 1 whose didactics is completed, neither to blame some other, nor himself. (5) [tr. George Long (1888)].

• Ἐφ' ἑκάστου τῶν προσπιπτόντων μέμνησο ἐπιστρέφων ἐπὶ σεαυτὸν ζητεῖν, τίνα δύναμιν ἔχεις πρὸς τὴν χρῆσιν αὐτοῦ. ἐὰν καλὸν ἴδῃς ἢ καλήν, εὑρήσεις δύναμιν πρὸς ταῦτα ἐγκράτειαν· ἐὰν πόνος προσφέρηται, εὑρήσεις καρτερίαν· ἂν λοιδορία, εὑρήσεις ἀνεξικακίαν. καὶ οὕτως ἐθιζόμενόν σε οὐ συναρπάσουσιν αἱ φαντασίαι.
  • With every accident, ask yourself what abilities you lot have for making a proper use of it. If you lot see an attractive person, you will detect that self-restraint is the ability you take against your desire. If you are in hurting, you lot will find fortitude. If yous hear unpleasant language, you will notice patience. And thus habituated, the appearances of things will not hurry y'all abroad along with them. (10).

• Remember that you ought to behave in life as you lot would at a banquet. As something is being passed around it comes to you; stretch out your hand, have a portion of it politely. It passes on; do not detain information technology. Or it has not come up to you yet; do non project your want to meet it, but wait until it comes in front of you. So deed toward children, and then toward a wife, so toward role, then toward wealth. (15).

• Remember that it is not he who gives abuse or blows who affronts, but the view we take of these things as insulting. When, therefore, any one provokes you, be assured that it is your ain opinion which provokes you. (xx).

• If a person gave your body to whatsoever stranger he met on his way, you would certainly exist aroused. And do you experience no shame in handing over your ain mind to be confused and mystified by anyone who happens to verbally assault you? (28) [tr. Elizabeth Carter]
  

Alternative translation: If someone turned your body over to only whatsoever person who happened to meet you lot, you would exist angry. Only are y'all non ashamed that you turn over your own faculty of judgment to whoever happens along, so that if he abuses you it is upset and confused? (28) [tr. Nicholas P. White]

• If a human has reported to yous, that a certain person speaks sick of you, do not make any defense (answer) to what has been told you: but respond, The man did non know the residue of my faults, for he would not accept mentioned these only. (33) [tr. George Long (1888)].

• When you practice anything from a clear judgment that information technology ought to be washed, never shun the being seen to do it, fifty-fifty though the earth should brand a incorrect supposition virtually it; for, if yous don't act right, shun the action itself; but, if you do, why are you afraid of those who censure you lot wrongly? (35).

• Everything has two handles, the i by which it may exist carried, the other by which it cannot. If your brother acts unjustly, don't lay hold on the activeness by the handle of his injustice, for by that it cannot exist carried; but by the opposite, that he is your brother, that he was brought up with you; and thus you lot will lay concur on it, as it is to be carried. (43).

• These reasonings are unconnected: "I am richer than you, therefore I am better"; "I am more than eloquent than you, therefore I am better." The connection is rather this: "I am richer than you, therefore my belongings is greater than yours;" "I am more eloquent than you, therefore my mode is meliorate than yours." But you, after all, are neither property nor style. (44).

• Does anyone bathe in a mighty fiddling fourth dimension? Don't say that he does information technology ill, but in a mighty little time. Does anyone drink a corking quantity of wine? Don't say that he does sick, but that he drinks a not bad quantity. For, unless y'all perfectly understand the principle from which anyone acts, how should you know if he acts sick? Thus you will non run the hazard of assenting to any appearances just such every bit yous fully comprehend. (45).

• Never telephone call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a cracking bargain among the unlearned about theorems, just deed conformably to them. Thus, at an amusement, don't talk how persons ought to consume, but eat equally you ought. For remember that in this fashion Socrates also universally avoided all ostentation. And when persons came to him and desired to exist recommended by him to philosophers, he took and recommended them, and so well did he acquit beingness overlooked. So that if e'er any talk should happen amid the unlearned concerning philosophic theorems, exist you, for the most part, silent. For in that location is dandy danger in immediately throwing out what you accept non digested. And, if anyone tells y'all that you know goose egg, and you are non nettled at it, then yous may be sure that you have begun your business. For sheep don't throw up the grass to bear witness the shepherds how much they have eaten; merely, inwardly digesting their nutrient, they outwardly produce wool and milk. Thus, therefore, do yous besides non prove theorems to the unlearned, but the actions produced by them afterward they have been digested. (46).

• Whatever moral rules you have deliberately proposed to yourself abide by them as they were laws, and as if you would exist guilty of impiety by violating any of them. Don't regard what anyone says of yous, for this, later on all, is no concern of yours. How long, then, will you put off thinking yourself worthy of the highest improvements and follow the distinctions of reason? You have received the philosophical theorems, with which y'all ought to exist familiar, and you have been familiar with them. What other principal, then, do yous wait for, to throw upon that the delay of reforming yourself?... Allow whatever appears to exist the all-time be to you an inviolable law.(l).

• The first and most necessary topic in philosophy is that of the apply of moral theorems, such as, "We ought not to lie;" the second is that of demonstrations, such every bit, "What is the origin of our obligation non to lie;" the third gives strength and articulation to the other 2, such as, "What is the origin of this is a demonstration." For what is sit-in? What is consequence? What contradiction? What truth? What falsehood? The third topic, and so, is necessary on the account of the 2nd, and the second on the account of the kickoff. Simply the most necessary, and that whereon nosotros ought to balance, is the start. Simply we act just on the reverse. For we spend all our fourth dimension on the tertiary topic, and employ all our diligence about that, and entirely neglect the first. (51).

• Upon all occasions we ought to accept these maxims ready at hand:

Carry me, Jove, and you, O Destiny,
Wherever your decrees have fixed my station. ~ Cleanthes.

I follow cheerfully; and, did I not,
Wicked and wretched, I must follow still
Whoever yields properly to Fate, is deemed
Wise amongst men, and knows the laws of sky. ~ Euripides, Frag. 965.

And this third: O Crito, if information technology thus pleases the gods, thus permit information technology be. Anytus and Melitus may kill me indeed, but hurt me they cannot. ~ Socrates in Plato'southward Crito and Amends. (52).

Golden Sayings of Epictetus [edit]

as translated past Hastings Crossley

• Try to enjoy the dandy festival of life with other men. (3).

• Yard shalt not blame or flatter whatsoever. (vi).

• Simply God hath introduced Homo to be a spectator of Himself and of His works; and not a spectator only, only besides an interpreter of them. Wherefore it is a shame for man to brainstorm and to leave off where the brutes do. Rather he should brainstorm there, and leave off where Nature leaves off in united states of america: and that is at contemplation, and understanding, and a manner of life that is in harmony with herself. See and then that ye die non without being spectators of these things. (13).

• If what philosophers say of the kinship of God and Men be true, what remains for men to practice merely as Socrates did:—never, when asked one's state, to respond, 'I am an Athenian or a Corinthian,' only 'I am a citizen of the world.' (15).

• True instruction is this: —to learn to wish that each thing should come to pass every bit it does. And how does it come up to pass? Every bit the Disposer has tending it. At present He has disposed that in that location should be summer and wintertime, and plenty and famine, and vice and virtue, and all such opposites, for the harmony of the whole. (26).

• Have this thought e'er nowadays with thee, when one thousand losest whatever outward affair, what m gainest in its stead; and if this be the more than precious, say not, I have suffered loss. (27).

• Concerning the Gods, there are who deny the very beingness of the Godhead; others say that information technology exists, but neither bestirs nor concerns itself nor has forethought for anything. A third political party attribute to it existence and forethought, just only for keen and heavenly matters, not for annihilation that is on world. A fourth political party admit things on world as well as in heaven, but only in general, and non with respect to each individual. A 5th, of whom were Ulysses and Socrates, are those that weep:— I move not without Thy knowledge! (28).

• Y'all are impatient and hard to please. If alone, y'all call information technology solitude: if in the company of men, you dub them conspirators and thieves, and find mistake with your very parents, children, brothers and neighbours. Whereas when by yourself y'all should have called information technology Placidity and Freedom: and herein deemed yourself like unto the Gods. And when in the company of the many, yous should not take chosen information technology a wearisome crowd and tumult, but an assembly and a tribunal; and thus accepted all with delectation. What then is the chastisement of those who accept it not? To exist as they are. Is whatever discontented with beingness lonely? let him be in solitude. Is whatever discontented with his parents? allow him exist a bad son, and lament. Is whatsoever discontented with his children? permit him exist a bad begetter.—"Throw him into prison!"—What prison house?—Where he is already: for he is there against his will; and wherever a human is against his volition, that to him is a prison. Thus Socrates was not in prison since he was there with his own consent. (31 & 32).

• Knowest thou what kind of speck 1000 art in comparing with the Universe?—That is, with respect to the body; since with respect to Reason, 1000 art not inferior to the Gods, nor less than they. For the greatness of Reason is non measured past length or peak, only past the resolves of the mind. Identify and then thy happiness in that wherein grand art equal to the Gods. (33).

• When nosotros are invited to a feast, nosotros take what is fix before us; and were one to phone call upon his host to set fish upon the table or sugariness things, he would be deemed absurd. Withal in a give-and-take, we ask the Gods for what they do not give; and that, although they have given us and then many things! (35).

• If then all things that abound, nay, our ain bodies, are thus bound up with the whole, is non this withal truer of our souls? And if our souls are bound upwardly and in contact with God, equally existence very parts and fragments plucked from Himself, shall He not feel every motion of theirs as though it were His own, and belonging to His own nature? (36).

• 'But' you say, 'I cannot cover 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 human being'south own Guardian Spirit, who is charged to watch over him—a Guardian who sleeps not nor is deceived. For to what improve or more watchful Guardian could He take committed each of united states of america? And then when yous have shut the doors and made a darkness within, think never to say that you are alone; for you are not alone, but God is inside, and your Guardian Spirit, and what low-cal practise they need to behold what you do? To this God you as well should have sworn fidelity, fifty-fifty as soldiers unto Cæsar. They, when their service is hired, swear to agree the life of Cæsar dearer than all else: and volition you lot non swear your oath, that are deemed worthy of then many and great gifts? And will you not go along your oath when yous have sworn it? And what oath will you swear? Never to disobey, never to blame or murmur at nothing that comes to y'all from His hand: never unwillingly to do or endure aught that necessity lays upon yous... They swear to hold no other dearer than Cæsar: you, to agree our true selves dearer than all else beside. (37).

• What you shun enduring yourself, attempt non to impose on others. Y'all shun slavery—beware of enslaving others! If you can endure to do that, one would call up you had been once upon a time a slave yourself. For Vice has nothing in common with virtue, nor Freedom with slavery. (41).

• A guide, on finding a human being who has lost his manner, 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 lot will run into that he will follow. But so long every bit you do not show it him, you should not mock, but rather feel your own incapacity. (63).

• It was the first and most hitting characteristic of Socrates never to get heated in soapbox, never to utter an injurious or insulting word—on the reverse, he persistently bore insult from others and thus put an end to the fray. (64).

• If a man would pursue Philosophy, his first task is to throw away conceit. For it is incommunicable for a human to begin to learn what he has a conceit that he already knows. (72)
  • Variant: It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

• If you lot have given manner to acrimony, be certain that over and above the evil involved therein, you have strengthened the habit, and added fuel to the fire. If overcome by a temptation of the flesh, exercise not reckon it a single defeat, but that you accept as well strengthened your dissolute habits. Habits and faculties are necessarily affected past the corresponding acts... One who has had fever, even when it has left him, is non in the aforementioned condition of health as before, unless indeed his cure is consummate. Something of the aforementioned sort is truthful also of diseases of the mind. Backside, there remains a legacy of traces and of blisters: and unless these are around erased, subsequent blows on the same spot will produce no longer mere blisters, but sores. If you do not wish to be prone to anger, practise not feed the habit; requite it nothing which may tend to its increase. At first, proceed tranquillity and count the days when you were not angry: 'I used to be angry every day, then every other solar day: side by side every two, next every three days!' and if you lot succeed in passing xxx days, sacrifice to the Gods in thanksgiving. (75).

• If you have assumed a grapheme beyond your forcefulness, you accept both played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is within your powers. (79).

• And are all profited by what they hear, or only some amongst them? So that it seems that there is an art of hearing as well as one of speaking. (81).

• I who knows not who he is and to what end he was born; what kind of world this is and with whom he is associated therein; one who cannot distinguish Adept and Evil, Beauty and Foulness,... Truth and Falsehood, volition never follow Reason in shaping his desires and impulses and repulsions, nor however in assent, denial, or pause of judgment; but will in ane discussion go near deaf and blind, thinking himself to be somewhat, when he is in truth of no account. Is at that place anything new in all this? Is not this ignorance the cause of all the mistakes and mischances of men since the human race began?..." (81).

• You lot have not stirred my spirit. For what tin I run across in you to stir me, as a spirited horse will stir a approximate of horses? Your body? That you maltreat. Your wearing apparel? That is luxurious. Your beliefs, your look?—Nothing whatsoever. (81).

• When you want to hear a philosopher, do not say, 'Yous say nothing to me'; only bear witness yourself worthy or fit to hear, and then you lot volition run across how you will motility the speaker. (81).

• Seemeth it nothing to you, never to accuse, never to blame either God or Human being? to habiliment always the same countenance in going forth as in coming in? This was the secret of Socrates: still he never said that he knew or taught annihilation... Who amongst y'all makes this his aim? Were it indeed and so, you would gladly endure sickness, hunger, aye, death itself. (85).

• Canst m gauge men?... so brand us imitators of thyself, every bit Socrates did. Do this, practice not practise that, else will I cast thee into prison; this is not governing men like reasonable creatures. Say rather, Every bit God hath ordained, so do; else thou wilt endure chastisement and loss. Askest thou what loss? None other than this: To take left undone what thou shouldst accept washed: to have lost the faithfulness, the reverence, the modesty that is in thee! Greater loss than this seek non to find! (91).

• To you, all you accept seems small: to me, all I have seems great. Your desire is clamorous, mine is satisfied. See children thrusting their easily into a narrow-necked jar, and striving to pull out the nuts and figs it contains: if they make full the hand, they cannot pull it out once more, and so they fall to tears.—'Allow go a few of them, and and so you can draw out the residuum!'—You lot, also, let your desire become! covet not many things, and you will obtain. (95).

• 'My brother ought not to have treated me thus.' Truthful: only he must run across to that. Notwithstanding he may care for me, I must bargain rightly past him. This is what lies with me, what none can hinder. (97).

• A man should also exist prepared to be sufficient unto himself—to dwell within himself alone, even as God dwells with Himself alone... So should we also exist able to converse with ourselves, to need none else beside, to sigh for no distraction, to curve our thoughts upon the Divine Administration, and how we stand related to all else; to observe how human being accidents touched us of erstwhile, and how they affect us now; what things they are that still have power to injure united states of america, and how they may be cured and removed; to perfect what needs perfecting every bit Reason would direct. (98).

• In general, whatever 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 human who keeps an eye on outward show; who has an ulterior purpose, and is looking for spectators to shout, "Oh what a bang-up human!" This is why Apollonius then well said: "If you are aptitude upon a little private discipline, expect till you are choking with heat one day—then take a mouthful of cold water, and spit it out again, and tell no man!" (100).

• Report how to requite as one that is sick: that 1000 mayest hereafter give equally 1 that is whole. Fast; drink h2o simply; abstain altogether from desire, that thou mayest hereafter ostend thy desire to Reason. (101).

• Even as bad actors cannot sing alone, just but in chorus: so some cannot walk alone. Homo, if thou art aught, strive to walk alone and hold antipodal with yourself, instead of skulking in the chorus! at length think; expect around thee; bestir thyself, that one thousand mayest know who thou art! (103).

• Friend, bethink you first what it is that you would practice, and so what your own nature is able to bear. (104).

• Call back you to be a philosopher while acting as you do? recall yous to go on thus eating, thus drinking, giving manner in similar style to [your own] wrath and to displeasure? Nay you lot must watch, y'all must labor; overcome sure desires; quit your familiar friends, submit to exist despised by your slave, to be held in derision by them that meet you lot, to take the lower place in all things, in part, in positions of dominance, in courts of constabulary. Weight these things fully, and and then, if you will, lay to your hand; if as the price of these things you would gain Liberty, Tranquility, and passionless Serenity. (104).

• He that hath no musical instruction is a kid in Music; he that hath no letters is a child in Learning; he that is untaught is a kid in Life. (105).

• Till then these sound opinions have taken firm root in you, and you have gained a measure of strength for your security, I counsel yous to be cautious in associating with the uninstructed. Else whatever impressions you receive upon the tablets of your mind in the School volition day by day melt and disappear, like wax in the dominicus. Withdraw then somewhere far from the sun, while yous have these waxen sentiments. (107).

• If what charms y'all is nothing simply abstract principles, sit and plow them over quietly in your mind: but never dub yourself a Philosopher, nor suffer others to telephone call you so. Say rather: He is in error; for my desires, my impulses are unaltered. I requite in my adhesion to what I did before; nor had my way of dealing with the things of sense undergone any change. (109).

• Not even on finding himself in a well-ordered business firm does a homo step forward and say to himself, I must exist chief hither! Else the lord of that house takes observe of it, and, seeing him insolently giving orders, drags him forth and chastises him. And then information technology is too in the great City, the World. Here likewise is there a Lord of the House, who orders all things... (110).

• Others may fence themselves with walls and houses, when they do such deeds as these, and wrap themselves in darkness—aye, they take many a device to hide themselves. Some other may shut his door and station one before his chamber to say, if whatever comes, He has gone forth! he is non at leisure! Merely the true Cynic will have none of these things; instead of them, he must wrap himself in Modesty: else he will but bring himself to shame, naked and nether the open up heaven. That is his house; that is his door; that is the slave that guards his sleeping accommodation; that is his darkness! (111).

• The true Cynic must know that he is sent as a Messenger from God to men, to prove unto them that as touching skilful and evil they are in error; looking for those where they are not to be found, nor ever bethinking themselves where they are. And similar Diogenes when brought before Philip subsequently the battle of Chæronea, the Cynic must retrieve that he is a Spy. For a Spy he actually is—to bring back discussion what things are on Man's side, and what against him. And when he has diligently observed all, he must come up back with a true report, non terrified into announcing them to be foes that are no foes, nor otherwise perturbed or confounded by the things of sense. (113).

• How can it be that one who hath nothing, neither raiment, nor business firm, nor domicile, nor bodily tendance, nor servant, nor city, should live tranquil and contented? Behold God hath sent you a homo to show you in act and act that information technology may be so. Behold me! I have neither city nor firm nor possessions nor servants: the footing is my couch; I have no wife, no children, no shelter—nothing but earth and sky, and ane poor cloak. And what lack I even so? am I not untouched by sorrow, by fright? am I not complimentary? ...when have I laid anything to the charge of God or Man? when have I defendant whatsoever? hath any of yous seen me with a sorrowful countenance? And in what wise care for I those to whom you stand in fear and awe? Is it not equally slaves? Who when he seeth me doth not think that he beholdeth his Main and his King? (114).

• Give thyself more diligently to reflection: know thyself: accept counsel with the Godhead; without God put thine hand into nothing. (115).

• Just in the present condition of things, which resembles an Army in boxing array, ought non the Carper to be free from all distraction and given wholly to the service of God, and then that he can become in and out among men, neither fettered by the duties nor entangled by the relations of common life? For if he transgresses them, he will forfeit the character of a proficient man and true; whereas if he detect them, there is an cease of him as the Messenger, the Spy, the Herald of the Gods! (116).

• Ask me, if you choose, if a Carper shall engage in the administration of a state. ...Ask you if a man shall come forwards in the Athenian assembly and talk about revenues and supplies, when his business is to antipodal with all men, Athenians, Corinthians, and Romans alike, not about supplies, not almost revenue, not all the same peace and war, but nearly Happiness and Misery, Prosperity and Adversity, Slavery and Liberty? ...what greater government shall he hold than he holds already? (117).

• If a Cynic is an object of pity, he seems a mere ragamuffin; all turn away, all are offended at him. Nor should exist be slovenly of look, and so equally not to scare men from him in this mode either; on the reverse, his very roughness should exist clean and attractive. (118).

• 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 artillery and guards. (119).

• Does a Philosopher apply to people to come up and hear him? does he not rather, of his ain nature, attract those that will be benefited past him—similar the sun that warms, and the food that sustains them? (120).

• I use to you lot to come up and hear that you are in evil case; that what deserves your attention near is the concluding thing to gain information technology; that y'all know not adept from evil, and are in short a hapless wretch; a fine way to apply! though unless the words of the Philosopher affect y'all thus, speaker and voice communication are alike dead. (120).

• A Philosopher's school is a Surgery: pain, non pleasure, you should have felt therein. For on inbound none of y'all is whole. One has a shoulder out of joint, another an abscess: a third suffers from an issue, a forth pains in the head. And am I and then to sit down and treat you to pretty sentiments and empty fluourishes, so that you may applaud me and depart, with neither shoulder, nor caput, nor result, nor abscess a whit the improve for your visit? Is information technology so for this that immature men are to quit their homes, and leave parents, friends, kinsmen and substance to mouth out Bravo to your empty phrases! (121).

• If any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself solitary. For God hath made man to enjoy felicity and constancy of proficient. (122).

• This whole world is i great Urban center, and one is the substance whereof it is fashioned: a certain period indeed there needs must be, while these give place to those; some must perish for others to succeed; some move and some abide: withal all is total of friends—first God, and so Men, whom Nature hath spring past ties of kindred each to each. (123).

• If you seek Truth, y'all volition not seek to gain a victory past every possible ways; and when you have found Truth, you lot need non fear beingness defeated. (149).

• If grand wouldst make progress, be content to seem foolish and void of agreement with respect to outward things. Care non to be thought to know anything. If whatsoever should make account of thee, distrust thyself. (158).

• Keep expiry and exile daily earlier thine eyes, with all else that men deem terrible, but more especially Death. Then wilt thou never call up a mean thought, nor covet anything across mensurate. (161).

• Piety towards the Gods, be certain, consists importantly in thinking rightly concerning them—that they are, and that they govern the Universe with goodness and justice; and that thou thyself art appointed to obey them, and to submit under all circumstances that arise; acquiescing cheerfully in whatsoever may happen, sure that it is brought to laissez passer and achieved by the virtually Perfect Understanding. Thus thou wilt never find fault with the Gods, nor accuse them with neglecting thee. (163).

• Let silence be your full general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words. We shall, nevertheless, when occasion demands, enter into discourse sparingly, avoiding such common topics as gladiators, horse-races, athletes; and the perpetual talk well-nigh food and potable. Above all avoid speaking of persons, either in the manner of praise or arraign, or comparison. If you can, win over the conversation of your company to what information technology should be by your own. But if you should find yourself cut off without escape among strangers and aliens, exist silent. (164).

• Refuse altogether to take an adjuration if you tin, if not, every bit far as may be. (166).

• When yous have decided that a affair ought to be done, and are doing information technology, never shun being seen doing it, even though the multitude should exist probable to judge the affair amiss. For if you are non acting rightly, shun the act itself; if rightly, however, why fearfulness misplaced censure? (172).

• Everything has 2 handles, one by which it may be borne, the other by which it may not. If your brother sin confronting you lay not hold of it by the handle of his injustice, for by that it may non be borne: only rather by this, that he is your blood brother, the comrade of your youth; and thus you lot will lay agree on it so that it may exist borne. (174).

• It is hard to combine and unite these two qualities, the carefulness of ane who is affected past circumstances, and the intrepidity of one who heeds them not. Only it is not impossible: else were happiness also impossible. We should deed every bit we do in seafaring: "What tin can I practice?"—Cull the primary, the crew, the day, the opportunity. Then comes a sudden storm. What matters information technology to me? my part has been fully done. The matter is in the easily of some other—the Master of the ship. The ship is foundering. What then have I to do? I exercise the only matter that remains to me—to be drowned without fearfulness, without a weep, without upbraiding God, but knowing that what has been born must likewise perish. For I am non Eternity, but a human being—a part of the whole, every bit an hr is function of the day. I must come similar the hr, and like the hour must laissez passer! (186).

• What wouldst m exist found doing when overtaken by Death? If I might cull, I would be found doing some human activity of true humanity, of broad import, beneficent and noble. Simply if I may non be found engaged in aught then lofty, let me hope at least for this—what none may hinder, what is surely in my power—that I may be institute raising upward 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 acumen this thine Administration, I have not neglected. Equally far equally in me lay, I have done Thee no dishonour. Behold how I have used the senses, the chief conceptions which Grand 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 afford 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 identify them wherever Thou wilt! They were all Thine, and M gavest them me."—If a human depart thus minded, is it non enough? What life is fairer or more than noble, what terminate happier than his? (189).

Fragments [edit]

• The soul that companies with Virtue is like an ever-flowing source. It is a pure, clear, and wholesome draught; sweet, rich, and generous of its store; that injures not, neither destroys.
  • Fragment 2.

• Crows pick out the eyes of the dead, when the dead accept no longer need of them; but flatterers mar the soul of the living, and her eyes they bullheaded.
  • Fragment iv.

• Nature hath given men one tongue simply two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much equally we speak.
  • Fragment vi.

• Do not requite sentence in another tribunal till yous accept been yourself judged in the tribunal of Justice.
  • Fragment vii.

• Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one that is longer but of less account!
  • Fragment ix.

• Liberty is the proper name of virtue: Slavery, of vice.... None is a slave whose acts are free.
  • Fragment ten.

• Of pleasures, those which occur most rarely requite the near delight.
  • Fragment xi.

• Exceed due measure, and the most delightful things become the to the lowest degree delightful.
  • Fragment xii.

• The anger of an ape—the threat of a flatterer:—these deserve equal regard.
  • Fragment 13.

• A ship should not ride on a single ballast, nor life on a single hope.
  • Fragment xvi.

• Fortify thyself with delectation: that is an impregnable stronghold.
  • Fragment xvii.

• Recollect of God more than often than thou breathest.
  • Fragment xix.

• Choose the life that is noblest, for custom can make it sugariness to thee.
  • Fragment xx.

• Let thy speech of God be renewed day past twenty-four hours, aye, rather than thy meat and drink.
  • Fragment xxi.

• Even every bit the Sun doth not await for prayers and incantations to rise, only shines forth and is welcomed by all: so thou also wait not for clapping of hands and shouts and praise to practice thy duty; nay, do skillful of thine own accord, and m wilt be loved like the Lord's day.
  • Fragment xxii.

• Let no man remember that he is loved by any who loveth none.
  • Fragment xxiii.

• If k rememberest that God standeth past to behold and visit all that thou doest; whether in the torso or in the soul, thou surely wilt not err in any prayer or act; and thou shalt have God to dwell with thee.
  • Fragment xxiv.

• You are a lilliputian soul, carrying a corpse.
  • Fragment xxvi.

• Information technology is more than necessary for the soul to be cured than the trunk; for information technology is better to die than to alive badly.
  • Fragment xxxii.

Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919) [edit]

Quotes reported in Bartlett'due south Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

• The appearance of things to the listen is the standard of every action to man.
  • That nosotros ought non to be aroused with Mankind, Chap. xxviii.

• The essence of proficient and evil is a sure disposition of the will.
  • Of Courage, Chap. xxix.

• It is not reasonings that are wanted now; for there are books stuffed full of stoical reasonings.
  • Of Courage, Chap. xxix.

• For what constitutes a child?—Ignorance. What constitutes a kid?—Want of instruction; for they are our equals so far as their degree of cognition permits.
  • That Backbone is not inconsistent with Caution, book ii. Chap. i.

• Appear to know simply this,—never to fail nor fall.
  • That Courage is not inconsistent with Circumspection, book two. Chap. i.

• The materials of activeness are variable, but the use we make of them should exist abiding.
  • How Nobleness of Mind may be consistent with Prudence, Chap. v.

• Dare to look up to God and say, "Make utilize of me for the future equally Thou wilt. I am of the aforementioned mind; I am ane with Thee. I refuse zero which seems good to Thee. Pb me whither 1000 wilt. Clothe me in whatever dress Thou wilt."
  • That nosotros practice not study to make Employ of the established Principles concerning Adept and Evil, Chap. sixteen.

• Every addiction and faculty is preserved and increased by correspondent deportment,—as the habit of walking, by walking; of running, past running.
  • How the Semblances of Things are to be combated, Chap. xviii.

• Things true and evident must of necessity be recognized past those who would contradict them.
  • Concerning the Epicureans, Chap. xx.

• There are some things which men confess with ease, and others with difficulty.
  • Of Inconsistency, Chap. xxi.

• Who is at that place whom bright and agreeable children do not attract to play and creep and prattle with them?
  • Concerning a Person whom he treated with Condone, Chap. xxiv.

• In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake information technology.
  • That Everything is to be undertaken with Circumspection, Chap. 15.

• There is a fine circumstance connected with the graphic symbol of a Cynic,—that he must exist beaten similar an ass, and yet when beaten must dear those who beat out him, equally the male parent, as the brother of all.
  • Of the Cynic Philosophy, Chap. xxii.

• Allow not another'southward disobedience to Nature get an ill to you; for you were non born to be depressed and unhappy with others, only to exist happy with them. And if whatever is unhappy, remember that he is so for himself; for God made all men to bask felicity and peace.
  • That we ought not to exist afflicted by Things non in our own Power, Chap. xxiv.
• Just tell me this: did yous never love whatsoever person... were yous never allowable by the person beloved to do something which yous did non wish to practice? Have you never flattered your piddling slave? Have you never kissed her feet? And still if whatsoever man compelled you to kiss Caesar's anxiety, you would retrieve it an insult and excessive tyranny. What else and then is slavery?
  • The Discourses of Epictetus: With the Encheirdion and Fragments, By Epictetus

Quotes most Epictetus [edit]

• The manner in which Epictetus, Montaigne, and Salomon de Tultie wrote, is the about usual, the most suggestive, the well-nigh remembered, and the oftener quoted; because it is entirely composed of thoughts born from the common talk of life.
  • Note: Salomon de Tultie was a pseudonym adopted by Pascal equally the author of the Provincial Letters.
  • Blaise Pascal, Pensées, eighteen (1669).

• The phenomenon of the will [in Epictetus ] [...] a unlike mental ability whose primary characteristic is that information technology speaks an imperative even when it commands nothing but our ability to think. The goal is to annihilate reality insofar it concerns me.
  • Hannah Arendt, Lecture on Thinking

External links [edit]

• Epictetus at The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy
• Discourses at The Internet Classics Archive
• Epictetus at Theosophy Library Online
• The Encheiridion online
• Epictetus Research

Ancient Greek schools of philosophy
Pre-Socratic	Anaxagoras • Anaximander • Anaximenes • Democritus • Empedocles • Heraclitus • Leucippus • Melissus • Parmenides • Protagoras • Pythagoras • Thales • Zeno of Elea
Socratic	Antisthenes • Aristippus • Aristotle • Diogenes of Sinope • Euclid of Megara • Phaedo of Elis • Plato • Socrates
Hellenistic	Apollonius of Tyana • Augustine • Epictetus • Epicurus • John Philoponus • Lucretius • Plotinus • Proclus • Pyrrho • Sextus Empiricus • Zeno of Citium

1. ↑ Enchiridion 5 http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html

How to Know When a Man Is Upset at You

Source: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Epictetus

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