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03 - The Enchiridion - Epictetus · Logic Library

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  Chapter twenty one. Keep before your eyes from day to day, death and
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  exile, and all things that seem terrible, by death most of all.
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  And then you will never set your thoughts on what is low, and will
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  never desire anything beyond measure. Chapter twenty two. If you set your desire
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  on philosophy, you must at once prepare to meet with ridicule and the jeers
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  of many, who will say, here he is again, turn philosopher.
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  Where has he got these proud looks? Nay, put on no proud looks.
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  But hold fast to what seems best to you, and confidence that God
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  has set you at this post. And remember that if you abide where you
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  are, those who first laugh at you will one day admire you, and
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  that if you give way to them, you will get doubly laughed at.
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  Chapter twenty three. If it ever happened to you to be diverted to things
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  outside so that you desire to please another, know that you have lost your
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  life's plan. Be content then always to be a philosopher. If you wish
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  to be regarded as one, too, show yourself that you are one,
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  and you will be able to achieve it. Chapter twenty four. Let not
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  reflections such as these afflict to you, I shall live with honor and never
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  be of any account. For if lack of honor is an evil, no
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  one but yourself can involve you in evil any more than in shame. Is
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  it your business to get office or to be invited to an entertainment? Certainly?
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  Not? Where then is the dishonor that you talk of? How can
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  you be of no account anywhere when you want to count for something in those
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  matters only which are in your power, where you may achieve the highest worth.
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  But by friends you say, well, lack assistance. What do you
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  mean by lack of assistance? They will not have cash from you, and
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  you will not make them Roman citizens who told you that to do these things
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  is in our power and not depend upon others, who can give to another
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  what is not his to give? Get them? Then says he that we
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  may have them if I can get them and keep my self respect, honor,
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  magnanimity. Show the way, and I will get them. But if
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  you call on me to lose the good things that are mine in order that
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  you may win things that are not good, look how unfair and thoughtless you
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  are, and which do you really prefer? Money? Or a faithful,
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  modest friend. Therefore, help me rather to keep these qualities, and do
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  not expect from me actions which will make me lose them. But my country
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  says he will lack assistance so far as lies in me. Once more,
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  I ask, what assistance do you mean? It will not owe colonnades or
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  baths to you? What of that? It does not owe shoes to the
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  blacksmith or arms to the shoemaker. It is sufficient if each man fulfills his
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  own function. Would you do it no good? If you secured to it
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  another faithful and modest citizen. Yes, well, then you will not be
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  useless to it. What place then shall I have in the city, whatever
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  place you can hold while you keep your character for honor and self respect.
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  But if you are going to lose these qualities and trying to benefit your city,
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  what benefit I ask, would you have done her when you attain to
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  the perfection of being lost to shame and honor? Chapter twenty five. Has
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  someone had precedence of you at an entertainment or a levee, or been called
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  in before you to give advice? If these things are good, you ought
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  to be glad that he got them. If they are evil. Do not
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  be angry that you do not get them yourself. Remember that if you want
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  to get what is not in your power, you cannot earn the same reward
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  as others unless you act as they do. How is it possible for one
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  who does not haunt the great Man's door to have equal shares with one who
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  does, or one who does not go in his train equality with one who
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  does, or one who does not praise him with one who does. You
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  will be unjust then and insatiable if you wish to get these privileges for nothing
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  without paying their price. What is the price of a lettuce an obol?
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  Perhaps, If then a man pays his obel and gets his lettuces, and
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  you do not pay and do not get them, do not think you are
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  defrauded. For as he has lettuces, so you have the obol you did
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  not give. The same principle holds good too in conduct. You were not
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  invited to someone's entertainment because you do not give the host the price for which
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  he sells his dinner. He sells it for compliments, he sells it for
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  attentions. Pay him the price then, if it is to your profit.
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  But if you wish to get the one and yet not give up the other.
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  Nothing can satisfy you in your folly. What you say you have nothing
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  instead of the dinner. Nay, you have this. You have not praised
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  the man you do not want to praise. You have not had to bear
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  with the insults of his doorstep. Chapter twenty six. It is in our
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  power to discover the will of nature from those matters on which we have no
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  difference of opinion. For instance, when another man's slave has broken the wine
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  cup, we are very ready to say at once such things must happen.
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  Know then that when your own cup is broken, you ought to behave in
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  the same way as when your neighbors was broken. Apply the same principle to
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  higher matters. Is another's child or wife dead, not one of us,
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  but would say, such as the lot of man. But when one's own
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  dies straightway one cries alas miserable, am I? But we ought to remember
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  what our feelings are when we hear it of another Chapter twenty seven. As
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  a mark is not set up for men to miss it. So there is
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  nothing intrinsically evil in the world. Chapter twenty eight. If anyone trusted your
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  body to the first man he met, you would be indignant. But yet
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  you trust your mind to the chance corner, and allow it to be disturbed
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  and confounded. If he revile you, are you not ashamed to do so?
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  Chapter twenty nine. In everything you do, consider what comes first and
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  what follows, and so approach it. Otherwise you will come to it with
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  a good heart at first, because you have not reflected on any of the
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  consequences. And afterwards, when difficulties have appeared, you will desist to your
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  shame. Do you wish to win at Olympia, so do I, by
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  the gods, for it is a fine thing. But consider the first steps
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  to it and the consequences, and so lay your hand to the work.
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  You must submit to discipline, eat to order, touch no sweets, train
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  under compulsion at a fixed hour, in heat and cold. Drink no cold
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  water nor wine except by order. You must hand yourself over completely to your
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  trainer, as you would to a physician. And then when the contest comes,
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  you must risk getting hacked and sometimes dislocate your hand, twist your ankle,
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  swallow plenty of sand, sometimes get a flogging, and with all this
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  suffer defeat. When you have considered all this well, then enter on the
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  athlete's course if you still wish it. If you act without thought, you
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  will be behaving like children who one day play at wrestlers, another day at
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  gladiators. Now sound the trumpet, and next start the stage like them.
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  You will be now an athlete, now a gladiator, then orator, then
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  philosopher, but nothing with all your soul. Like an ape, you imitate
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  every site you see, and one thing after another takes your fancy. When
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  you undertake a thing, you do it casually and half heartedly, instead of
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  considering it and looking at it all round. In the same way, some
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  people, when they see a philosopher and hear a man speaking like Euphrates,
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  and indeed who can speak as he can, wish to be philosophers themselves.
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  Man, consider first what it is you are undertaking. Then look at your
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  own powers and see if you can bear it. Do you want to compete
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  in the pentathlon or in wrestling? Look to your arms, your thighs,
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  see what your loins are like. For different men are born for different tasks.
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  Do you suppose that if you do this you can live as you do
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  now, eat and drink as you do. Now, indulge desire and discontent,
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  just as before. Nay, you must sit up late, work hard,
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  abandon your own people, be looked down on by a mere slave,
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  be ridiculed by those who meet you, get the worst of it in everything,
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  in honor, in office, in justice, in every possible thing.
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  This is what you have to consider, whether you are willing to pay this
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  price for peace of mind, freedom, tranquility. If not, do not
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  come near. Do not be like the children, first a philosopher, then
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  a tax collector, then an orator, than one of Caesar's procure. These
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  collings do not agree. You must be one man, good or bad.
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  You must develop either your governing principle or your outward endowments. You must study
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  either your inner man or outward things. In a word, you must choose
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  between the position of a philosopher and that of a mere outsider. Chapter thirty.
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  Appropriate acts are in general measured by the relations they are concerned with.
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  He is your father. This means you are called on to take care of
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  him, give way to him, and all things, bear with him if
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  he reviles or strikes you. But he is a bad father, Well have
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  you not any natural claim to a good father? No, only to a
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  father. My brother wrongs me. Be careful then, to maintain the relation
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  you hold to him, and do not consider what he does, but what
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  you must do if your purpose is to keep in accord with nature, for
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  no one shall harm you without your consent. You will only be harmed when
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  you think you are harmed. You will only discover what is proper to expect
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  from neighbor, citizen, or praetor if you get into the habit of looking
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  at the relations implied by each end of chapters twenty one through thirty