Epictetus Bartleby

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Number 57

Joshua — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 03:00:08 +0000

That was a good reply which Diogenes made to a man who asked him for letters of recommendation.—“That you are a man, he will know when he sees you;—whether a good or bad one, he will know if he has any skill in discerning the good and the bad. But if he has none, he will never know, though I write to him a thousand times.”—It is as though a piece of silver money desired to be recommended to some one to be tested. If the man be a good judge of silver, he will know: the coin will tell its own tale.

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Number 56

Joshua — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 02:00:18 +0000

How is it then that certain external things are said to be natural, and others contrary to Nature?
Why, just as it might be said if we stood alone and apart from others. A foot, for instance, I will allow it is natural should be clean. But if you take it as a foot, and as a thing which does not stand by itself, it will beseem it (if need be) to walk in the mud, to tread on thorns, and sometimes even to be cut off, for the benefit of the whole body; else it is no longer a foot. In some such way we should conceive of ourselves also. What art thou?—A man.—Looked at as standing by thyself and separate, it is natural for thee in health and wealth long to live. But looked at as a Man, and only as a part of a Whole, it is for that Whole’s sake that thou shouldst at one time fall sick, at another brave the perils of the sea, again, know the meaning of want and perhaps die an early death. Why then repine? Knowest thou not that as the foot is no more a foot if detached from the body, so thou in like case art no longer a Man? For what is a Man? A part of a City:—first, of the City of Gods and Men; next, of that which ranks nearest it, a miniature of the universal City…. In such a body, in such a world enveloping us, among lives like these, such things must happen to one or another. Thy part, then, being here, is to speak of these things as is meet, and to order them as befits the matter.

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Number 55

Joshua — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 01:00:11 +0000

As for us, we behave like a herd of deer. When they flee from the huntsman’s feathers 1 in affright, which way do they turn? What haven of safety do they make for? Why, they rush upon the nets! And thus they perish by confounding what they should fear with that wherein no danger lies…. Not death or pain is to be feared, but the fear of death or pain. Well said the poet therefore:—

Death has no terror; only a Death of shame!

Note 1. Colored feathers fixed to ropes partly surrounding the cover.

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Number 54

Joshua — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:01:31 +0000

In the same way my friend Heraclitus, who had a trifling suit about a petty farm at Rhodes, first showed the judges that his cause was just, and then at the finish cried, “I will not entreat you; nor do I care what sentence you pass. It is you who are on your trial, not I!”—And so he ended the case. 1

Note 1. Or, “And so he lost his case” (Long).

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Number 53

Joshua — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 05:00:29 +0000

Nay, young man, for heaven’s sake; but once thou hast heard these words, go home and say to thyself:—“It is not Epictetus that has told me these things: how indeed should he? No, it is some gracious God through him. Else it would never have entered his head to tell me them—he that is not used to speak to any one thus. Well, then, let us not lie under the wrath of God, but be obedient unto Him.”—Nay, indeed; but if a raven by its croaking bears thee any sign, it is not the raven but God that sends the sign through the raven; and if He signifies anything to thee through human voice, will He not cause the man to say these words to thee, that thou mayest know the power of the Divine—how He sends a sign to some in one way and to others in another, and on the greatest and highest matters of all signifies His will through the noblest messenger?
What else does the poet mean:—
I spake unto him erst Myself, and sent
Hermes the shining One, to check and warn him,
The husband not to slay, nor woo the wife!

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Number 52

Joshua — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 04:00:25 +0000

“That Socrates should ever have been so treated by the Athenians!”
Slave! why say “Socrates”? Speak of the thing as it is: That ever then the poor body of Socrates should have been dragged away and haled by main force to prison! That ever hemlock should have been given to the body of Socrates; that that should have breathed its life away!—Do you marvel at this? Do you hold this unjust? Is it for this that you accuse God? Had Socrates no compensation for this? Where then for him was the ideal Good? Whom shall we hearken to, you or him? And what says he?
“Anytus and Meletus may put me to death: to injure me is beyond their power.”
And again:—
“If such be the will of God, so let it be.”

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Number 51

Joshua — Mon, 05 May 2008 12:00:51 +0000

When thou goest in to any of the great, remember that Another from above sees what is passing, and that thou shouldst please Him rather than man. He therefore asks thee:—
“In the Schools, what didst thou call exile, imprisonment, bonds, death and shame?”
“I called them things indifferent.”
“What then dost thou call them now? Are they at all changed?”
“No.”
“Is it then thou that art changed?”
“No.”
“Say then, what are things indifferent?”
“Things that are not in our power.”
“Say then, what follows?”
“That things which are not in our power are nothing to me.”
“Say also what things you hold to be good.”
“A will such as it ought to be, and a right use of the things of sense.”
“And what is the end?”
“To follow Thee!”

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Number 50

Joshua — Mon, 05 May 2008 10:00:22 +0000

Wouldst thou have men speak good of thee? speak good of them. And when thou hast learned to speak good of them, try to do good unto them, and thus thou wilt reap in return their speaking good of thee.

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Number 49

Joshua — Mon, 05 May 2008 08:00:56 +0000

In what character dost thou now come forward?
As a witness summoned by God. “Come thou,” saith God, “and testify for Me, for thou art worthy of being brought forward as a witness by Me. Is aught that is outside thy will either good or bad? Do I hurt any man? Have I placed the good of each in the power of any other than himself? What witness dost thou bear to God?”
“I am in evil state, Master, I am undone! None careth for me, none giveth me aught: all men blame, all speak evil of me.”
Is this the witness thou wilt bear, and do dishonour to the calling wherewith He hath called thee, because He hath done thee so great honour, and deemed thee worthy of being summoned to bear witness in so great a cause?

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Number 48

Joshua — Mon, 05 May 2008 06:00:41 +0000

This is the reason why Socrates, when reminded that he should prepare for his trial, answered: “Thinkest thou not that I have been preparing for it all my life?”
“In what way?”
“I have maintained that which in me lay.”
“How so?”
“I have never, secretly or openly, done a wrong unto any.”