Epictetus

“ You seek to avoid slavery, see to it that you do not yourself have slaves. For if you endure to have slaves, it seems that you yourself are first of all a slave. For evil has no communion with virtue, nor freedom with slavery. ”

“ Thus, Death is not really terrible—if it were so it would have appeared so to Socrates—but the opinion about Death, that it is terrible, that it is wherein the terror lies. Wherefore when we are hindered, or confounded, or grieved, let us never cast the blame upon others, but upon ourselves; that is, on our opinions of things. A man untaught in philosophy [3] accuses others on the score of his own misfortunes; he who has begun to be taught accuses himself; he who is fully taught, neither others nor himself. ”

“ This view, I say, accords with Stoicism, for as long as we have any consciousness at all we are being impressed in some way or other through the senses and affections, and to use the pleasures of them with the mingled freedom and reverence only known to those whom all things have power to penetrate with a sense of the divine is not less satisfying to the real self than to deal patiently and nobly with their pains—'despising not the chastening of the Eternal.' It accords with Stoicism ”

“ The value of the Encheiridion, like that of every book which contains a revelation and a doctrine, must be tested, to a large extent at least, by the proveable reality of the facts which it declares and on which it builds. If these facts, in the case of Stoicism, are, as many seem to think, mere philosophic fancies, incapable of being widely verified in common experience, then let not all the lives which it has influenced and ennobled persuade us to take Stoicism, as a system, into any serious consideration. ”

“ For it is the inherent nature of every creature to fly from and shun all things that appear harmful, and the causes of the same, but to follow after and admire things, and the causes of things, which appear beneficial. It is impossible then that one who thinks himself harmed should take delight in that which seems to harm him, just as it is impossible that he should take delight in the very injury itself. ”

“ XVII.As the Sun does not wait for prayers and incantations before he rises, but straightway shines forth and is hailed of all, so do not you wait to do good for applause, and noise, and praise, but do it of your own desire, and like the Sun you will be loved. ”

“ But if you require me to sacrifice that which I have, which is really good, in order that you may compass what is no good at all, behold how unjust and inconsiderate you are! And is it not better than money, to have faith and modesty in a friend? ”

“ XV.Bear in mind that you should conduct yourself in life as at a feast. ”

“ XXIV.α.Never afflict yourself with such reflections as I shall live without honour and never be anybody anywhere. For if to live without honour be really a misfortune, know that it is not possible for you to fall into misfortune, any more than into vice, through anything that another can do. ”

“ Lameness is a hindrance of the leg, not of the will. And this you may say upon every occasion, for nothing can happen to you but you will find it a hindrance, not of yourself, but of some other thing. ”

“ And thus it is that a father is reviled by his son when he will not give him a share of the things that are thought to be good. And it was this that set Polyneices and Eteocles at war with each other, the opinion, namely, that royalty was a good. And through this the Gods are blamed by the husbandman and the sailor, by the merchant and by those who lose their wives or children. For when advantage is, there also is religion. So that he who is careful to desire and to dislike as he ought is careful at the same time of religion. ”

“ XII.α.If you wish to advance in philosophy you must dismiss such considerations as If I neglect my affairs, I shall not have wherewithal to support life. If I do not correct my servant, he will be good-for-nothing. For it is better to die of hunger, having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit amid abundance. And it is better to have a bad servant. ”