Lessons from a slave
Epictetus was a Greek philosopher born into slavery in the 2nd century.
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Epictetus was a Greek philosopher born into slavery in the 2nd century. He earned his freedom and opened a school to teach Stoicism, becoming one of the most influential Stoic philosopher.
Lessons from Epictetus
You attitude determines your outlook. For another will not damage you, unless you choose: but you will be injured only when you shall think that you are injured.
Don’t waste time lamenting on what has happened. Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, you will have a tranquil flow of life.
Become still - let the logos flow through you. It is the act of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad conditions; it is the act of one who has begun to be instructed, to lay blame on himself; and of one whose instruction is completed, neither to blame another nor himself.
Freedom from desire. Whoever then wishes to be free, let him neither wish for anything nor avoid anything which depends on others. If he does not observe this rule, he must be a slave.
Decide who you will become. You must be one man, either good or bad. You must either cultivate your own ruling faculty, or external things; you must either exercise your skill on internal things or on external things; that is, you must either maintain the position of a philosopher or that of an outsider.
Protect what enters your mind. In walking about you take care not to step on a nail or to sprain your foot; so take care not to damage your own ruling faculty. If we observe this rule in every act, we shall undertake the act with more security.
Don’t seek anything that is outside of yourself. If it should ever happen to you to be turned to externals in order to please some person, you must know that you have lost your purpose in life.
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