Discourses and Selected Writings (Penguin Classics)

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Good” and “bad” lie in reason and will: they are determined by our response to these external stimuli—“impressions”—and the uses we make of them.

Epicureanism claim only individual pleasures should be sought, yet Epicurus himself busied himself with teaching and writing many books to inform others - why bother?If Stoicism has sometimes been accused of being resigned to despair, that criticism might have some justification with Epictetus. His conception of a human being itself requires the individual being defined in relation to the city, and then to the “universal city” (the kingdom of god). Like Epicurus, Epictetus believed that you had to implement your own philosophy so for his followers it became a quasi-religion.

We owe our knowledge of the teachings of Epictetus to one of his many devoted students, Arrian, who faithfully compiled the sage’s words into the Discourses and the Enchiridion after his retirement. Humbly, I can’t review a 2,000-year-old book of the great philosophers as if it’s just an ordinary read. The categories of “good” and “bad” do not apply to the external things which impose themselves upon us; our faulty perception to the contrary is what makes us ensnared, immiserated, and prone to vice. First, you must allow the tree to flower, then put forth fruit; then you have to wait until the fruit is ripe. Railing against the chaos of the universe is no more helpful than condemning the capriciousness of God or gods.

Another person will not hurt you without your co-operation; you are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be. So long as he entrusts it to you, take care of it as something that isn’t your own, as travellers treat an inn. It's an immortal classic that will never grow old - not getting familiar with it is a mistake to be fixed. A tyrant can destroy a man's body, but so can a fever, and they should both be given the same regard.

All these works are collections of short sayings of miniature essays, and while each fragment is interesting, they have so much overlap that after reading ten of them, the repitition begins to bother me.And as opposed to many of the then current ethics (like Aristotelean, Skeptic and Epicurean ethics), and in line with Socratic conceptions of virtue as knowledge, the Stoic ethics consists in practice, not theory.