“Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
Write your response
Take five minutes with it. No account needed to start, and nobody else can read what you write.
Respond to this passageWhere this comes from
The "handbook": a short distillation of the Discourses, compiled by Arrian.
Epictetus. Born enslaved in Phrygia around 50 CE and freed as a young man, he taught in Nicopolis after philosophers were expelled from Rome. He wrote nothing himself; the Discourses and the shorter Enchiridion were set down by his student Arrian.
Read next
“Keep yourself free from passion and hatred.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
“Man is affected not by events but by the view he takes of them.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
“It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion
“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
— Epictetus, Enchiridion