Discourses and Selected Writings - Epictetus
- Abhishek Rao
- Nov 24, 2023
- 8 min read
Updated: Mar 23, 2024
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Genre: Philosophy
Rating: 5/5
Date Read: 16/08/2023
Goodreads Profile: Abhishek Rao
Book Link: Discourses and Selected Writings
We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. - Epictetus
Introduction:
Page xi:
Stoicism was founded in the third century BC by Zeno of Citium; Cleanthes succeeded him as head of the school. But it was Cleanthes’ successor, Chrysippus (208 BC), who contributed most to the development of Stoic doctrine and deserves most of the credit for what Stoicism eventually became - the dominant philosophy of the post-classical era.
Page xiv:
‘You have only to doze for a moment, and all is lost. For ruin and salvation, both have their source inside you.’ ‘Very little is needed for everything to be upset and ruined, only a slight lapse in reason.’ Or, to quote Tacitus, ‘Once the choice is made… the subsequent sequence of events cannot be altered.’
Page xvi:
The first printed edition of the Discourses appeared in Venice in 1535.
Page xviii:
Someone says, I don’t like leisure, it’s boring. I don’t like crowds, they’re a nuisance. But if events ordain that you spend time either alone or with just a few other people, look upon it as tranquility and play along with it for the duration. Talk to yourself, train your thoughts and shape your preconceptions.
Page xx:
A personal account of how Epictetus helped a prisoner of war endure extremes of hardship and degradation can be found in J. Stockdale’s Courage under Fire: Testing Epictetus’ Doctrines in a Laboratory of Human Behaviour (Stanford, 1993). Stockdale is remembered mainly for being third-party candidate Ross Perot’s running mate in the US presidential election of 1992, but during the Vietnam War he spent seven years as a POW, four of them in solitary confinement - solitary, it seems, except for a copy of the Discourses.
The Discourses:
Book I
Page 7:
I have to die. If it is now, well then I die now; if later, then now I will take my lunch since the hour for lunch has arrived - and dying I will tend to later.
Page 15:
If a man objects to truths that are all too evident, it is no easy task finding arguments that will change his mind. This is proof neither of his own strength nor of his teacher’s weakness. When someone caught in an argument hardens to stone, there is just no more reasoning with them.
Page 16:
One person does not notice a contradiction in his reasoning; he is unfortunate. Another person notices it, all right, but does not budge and does not back down; he is even more unfortunate. His sense of honour and truthfulness has been excised, and his reason - not excised, but brutalized. Am I to call this a strength of character? I can’t- any more than I can apply the same name to the ‘strength’ of degenerates that enables them to say and do in public whatever they please.
Page 24:
Socrates always said, I am Athenian, or I am from Corinth, but always, I am a citizen of the world. After all, why say, I am Athenian? Why not just identify yourself with the exact spot where your sorry body was dropped at birth?
Page 34:
Freedom, you see, is having events go in accordance with our will, never contrary to it. Well - is freedom the same as madness? Of course not, madness and freedom are poles apart. ‘But I want my wishes realised, never mind the reason behind them.’ 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.
Page 46:
Because if loss of the greatest asset involves the greatest harm, and someone is deprived of their moral bearings, which is the most important capacity they have - well, why add anger to their loss? If you must be affected by other people’s misfortunes, show them pity instead of contempt.
Page 47:
When starving people see you gobbling down food all by yourself, you know one of them will make a grab at it. So don’t provoke them - don’t air your clothes at the window!
Loss and sorrow are only possible with respect to things we own.
But the tyrant will chain - What will he chain? Your leg. He will chop off - What? Your head. What he will never chain or chop off is your integrity. That’s the reason behind the ancient advice to ‘know yourself’.
We should discipline ourselves in small things and from there progress to things of greater value. If you have a headache, practice not cursing. Don’t curse every time you have an earache. And I’m not saying that you can’t complain, only don’t complain with your whole being. If your servant is slow to bring you a bandage, don’t roll around and yell, ‘Everybody hates me!’ Walk upright and free, trusting in the strength of your moral convictions, not the strength of your body, like an athlete. You are invincible if nothing outside the will can disconcert you.
Page 48:
A person who enjoys some advantage, or just believes they do, will invariably grow to be arrogant, especially if they are uneducated.
Page 52:
When someone is properly grounded in life, they shouldn’t have to look outside themselves for approval.
Page 57:
So just remember what belongs to you, and you won’t lay claim to what doesn’t.
Page 63:
Socrates used to say that the unexamined life was not worth living.
Page 64:
Impressions come to us in four ways: things are and appear to be; or they are not, and do not appear to be; or they are, but do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. The duty of an educated man in all these cases is to judge correctly. And whatever disturbs our judgement, for that we need to find a solution.
No, I cannot escape death, but at least I can escape the fear of it - or do I have to die moaning and groaning too?
Page 69:
If you want something good, get it from yourself.
If a tyrant threatens me at court, I say, ‘What is he threatening?’ If he says, ‘I will put you in chains,’ I say, ‘He is threatening my hands and feet.’ If he says, ‘I will behead you,’ I say ‘He is threatening my neck.’ If he says, ‘I will throw you into prison,’ I say, ‘He is threatening my entire body’; if he threatens exile, I say the same. ‘Well, then, aren’t you threatened, even a little?’ If I feel that these things are nothing to me, then no. But if I fear for any of them, then, yes, it is I who am threatened. Who is there left for me to fear, and over what has he control? Not what is in my power, because no one controls that except myself. As for what is not in my power, in that, I take no interest.
Page 70:
For the main force, yes, ten are better than one. But one person with the right judgements is superior to ten without. Numbers here are irrelevant. Put them in the balance, the person with correct ideas will outweigh all the others.
Book II
Page 79:
The masses are wrong to say that only freeborn men are entitled to an education; believe the philosophers instead, who say that only educated people are entitled to be called free.
What else is freedom but the power to live our life the way we want? - Nothing
Do you want to live life doing wrong? - No.
Therefore, no one doing wrong is free. Do you want to live your life in fear, grief and anxiety? Of course not. So no one in a state of constant fear is free either.
Page 89:
It is good to be clear about the level of your talent and training. That way, when unfamiliar topics arise, you will know enough to keep still, and not be put out if there are students more advanced than you.
Don’t pretend you have a particular skill if you don’t yet; yield to whoever has the requisite experience; and for your own part take satisfaction in an awareness that your persistence is helping you become expert in the subject yourself.
Page 101:
Socrates would compel whomever he spoke with to voice their views, and one interlocutor was enough. Which is why he could say, ‘Everyone else can go hang, I am only interested in what the person I’m talking to has to say. No one’s vote counts with me except that of my partner in dialogue.
Page 102:
Now that is the first thing Socrates was known for - never turning dialogue into dispute, never introducing rudeness or invective, although he would put up with the insults of others in order to avoid a fight.
Page 110:
Begin with a firm foundation; evaluate your decision to see if it is valid - then there will be a basis for this rigid resolve of yours. If your foundation is rotten or crumbling, not a thing should be built on it, and the bigger and grander you make it, the sooner it will collapse.
Page 122:
Suppress the first impulse to be angry, then begin to count the days on which you don’t get mad. ‘I used to be angry every day, then only every other day, the every third…’ If you resist it a whole month, the vice begins to weaken from day one, until it is wiped out altogether. ‘I didn’t lose my temper this day, or the next, and not for two, then three months in succession.’ If you can say that, you are now in excellent health, believe me.
Page 124:
Make a bad beginning and you’ll contend with troubles ever after.
Book IV
Page 175:
Free 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.
Page 196:
It isn’t possible to change your behaviour and still be the same person you were before. So choose: either regain the love of your old friends by reverting to your former self or remain better than you once were and forfeit their affection. And if you choose the latter, stick to it from here on out. Don’t give in to second thoughts, because no one who wavers will make progress. And if you are committed to making progress and ready to devote yourself to the effort, then give up everything else. Otherwise, your ambivalence will only ensure that you don’t make progress, and you won’t even get to revisit the pleasures of the past.
Page 197:
If you forfeit an external possession, make sure to notice what you get in return. If it is something more valuable, never say, ‘I have suffered a loss.’
Page 198:
Guard what is good for you always; make wise use of material things for as long as they are granted you to enjoy, and be content with virtue exclusively. Otherwise, you will meet with bad luck, disappointment and frustration at every turn.
Page 203:
If the goal is glory, I call them ambitious; if it’s money, I call them avaricious. if, however, their efforts aim at improving the mind, then - and only then - do I call them hard-working.
Book Link: Discourses and Selected Writings
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