THE DISCOURSES

by

Epictetus

101 AD

Translated by George Long


CONTENTS:

BOOK ONE. 5

CHAPTER 1 Of the things which are in our Power, and not in our Power 5

CHAPTER 2 How a Man on every occasion can maintain his Proper Character 7

CHAPTER 3 How a man should proceed from the principle of God being the father of all men to the rest 9

CHAPTER 4 Of progress or improvement 10

CHAPTER 5 Against the academics. 12

CHAPTER 6 Of providence. 13

CHAPTER 7 Of the use of sophistical arguments, and hypothetical, and the like. 16

CHAPTER 8 That the faculties are not safe to the uninstructed. 18

CHAPTER 9 How from the fact that we are akin to God a man may proceed to the consequences 19

CHAPTER 10 Against those who eagerly seek preferment at Rome. 22

CHAPTER 11 Of natural affection. 23

CHAPTER 12 Of contentment 26

CHAPTER 13 How everything may he done acceptably to the gods. 28

CHAPTER 14 That the deity oversees all things. 29

CHAPTER 15 What philosophy promises. 30

CHAPTER 16 Of providence. 31

CHAPTER 17 That the logical art is necessary. 33

CHAPTER 18 That we ought not to he angry with the errors of others. 35

CHAPTER 20 About reason, how it contemplates itself 38

CHAPTER 21 Against those who wish to be admired. 39

CHAPTER 22 On precognitions. 40

CHAPTER 23 Against Epicurus. 42

CHAPTER 24 How we should struggle with circumstances. 43

CHAPTER 25 On the same. 45

CHAPTER 26 What is the law of life. 47

CHAPTER 27 In how many ways appearances exist, and what aids we should provide against them 49

CHAPTER 28 That we ought not to he angry with men; and what are the small and the great things among men 51

CHAPTER 29 On constancy. 53

BOOK TWO.. 58

CHAPTER 1 That confidence is not inconsistent with caution. 58

CHAPTER 2 Of Tranquillity. 61

CHAPTER 3 To those who recommend persons to philosophers. 63

CHAPTER 4 Against a person who had once been detected in adultery. 64

CHAPTER 5 How magnanimity is consistent with care. 65

CHAPTER 6 Of indifference. 67

CHAPTER 7 How we ought to use divination. 69

CHAPTER 8 What is the nature of the good. 70

CHAPTER 9 That when we cannot fulfill that which the character of a man promises, we assume the character of a philosopher 72

CHAPTER 10 How we may discover the duties of life from names. 74

CHAPTER 11 What the beginning of philosophy is. 76

CHAPTER 12 Of disputation or discussion. 78

CHAPTER 13 On anxiety. 80

CHAPTER 14 To Naso. 82

CHAPTER 15 To or against those who obstinately persist in what they have determined. 84

CHAPTER 16 That we do not strive to use our opinions about good and evil 86

CHAPTER 17 How we must adapt preconceptions to particular cases. 89

CHAPTER 18 How we should struggle against appearances. 92

CHAPTER 19 Against those who embrace, philosophical opinions only in words. 94

CHAPTER 20 Against the Epicureans and Academics. 97

CHAPTER 21 Of inconsistency. 100

CHAPTER 22 On friendship. 102

CHAPTER 23 On the power of speaking. 105

CHAPTER 24 To a person who was one of those who was not valued by him.. 109

CHAPTER 25 That logic is necessary. 111

CHAPTER 26 What is the property of error 112

BOOK THREE. 113

CHAPTER 1 Of finery in dress. 113

CHAPTER 2 In what a man ought to be exercised who has made proficiency; and that we neglect the chief things 117

CHAPTER 3 What is the matter on which a good man should he employed, and in what we ought chiefly to practice ourselves. 119

CHAPTER 4 Against a person who showed his partisanship in an unseemly way in a theatre. 121

CHAPTER 5 Against those who on account of sickness go away home. 122

CHAPTER 6 Miscellaneous. 124

CHAPTER 7 To the administrator of the free cities who was an Epicurean. 125

CHAPTER 8 How we must exercise ourselves against appearances. 128

CHAPTER 9 To a certain rhetorician who was going up to Rome on a suit 129

CHAPTER 10 In what manner we ought to bear sickness. 131

CHAPTER 11 Certain miscellaneous matters. 133

CHAPTER 12 About exercise. 134

CHAPTER 13 What solitude is, and what kind of person a solitary man is. 136

CHAPTER 14 Certain miscellaneous matters. 138

CHAPTER 15 That we ought to proceed with circumspection to everything. 139

CHAPTER 16 That we ought with caution to enter, into familiar intercourse with men. 140

CHAPTER 17 On providence. 141

CHAPTER 18 That we ought not to be disturbed by any news. 142

CHAPTER 19 What is the condition of a common kind of man and of a philosopher 143

CHAPTER 20 That we can derive advantage from all external things. 144

CHAPTER 21 Against those who readily come to the profession of sophists. 146

CHAPTER 22 About cynicism.. 148

CHAPTER 23 To those who read and discuss for the sake of ostentation. 156

CHAPTER 24 That we ought not to be moved by a desire of those things which are not in our power 159

CHAPTER 25 To those who fall off from their purpose. 167

CHAPTER 26 To those who fear want 168

BOOK FOUR.. 171

CHAPTER 1 About freedom.. 171

CHAPTER 2 On familiar intimacy. 184

CHAPTER 3 What things we should exchange for other things. 185

CHAPTER 4 To those who are desirous of passing life in tranquility. 186

CHAPTER 5 Against the quarrelsome and ferocious. 190

CHAPTER 6 Against those who lament over being pitied. 193

CHAPTER 7 On freedom from fear 196

CHAPTER 8 Against those who hastily rush into the use of the philosophic dress. 199

CHAPTER 9 To a person who had been changed to a character of shamelessness. 203

CHAPTER 10 What things we ought to despise, and what things we ought to value. 205

CHAPTER 11 About Purity. 208

CHAPTER 12 On attention. 211

CHAPTER 13 Against or to those who readily tell their own affairs. 213


BOOK ONE

CHAPTER 1 Of the things which are in our Power, and not in our Power

 

Of all the faculties, you will find not one which is capable of contemplating itself; and, consequently, not capable either of approving or disapproving. How far does the grammatic art possess the contemplating power? As far as forming a judgement about what is written and spoken. And how far music? As far as judging about m