by Epictetus
[37] Show them this, though, that you know how not to fail in your desires or experience what you don’t desire. [38] Let others practise lawsuits, solve logical puzzles or syllogisms. Your duty is to prepare for death and imprisonment, torture and exile – [39] and all such evils – with confidence, because you have faith in the one who has called on you to face them, having judged you worthy of the role. When you take on the role, you will show the superiority of reason and the mind over forces unconnected with the will. [40] Then that paradox will no longer seem so paradoxical or absurd – that we should be confident and cautious at the same time: confident in relation to things outside the will, cautious about things within.
II 2 On tranquillity
[1] If you are headed to court, consider carefully what it is you want to keep and in what area you want to win. [2] If you want to keep your character in line with nature, you have every hope of success, all the means you need, and not a worry in the world. [3] Because if you want to keep what is yours by right and is by nature free – and these are the only things you want – you have nothing to worry about. No one else controls them or can take them away from you. [4] If you want to be a man of honour and a man of your word, who is going to stop you? You say you don’t want to be obstructed or forced to do something against your will – well, who is going to force you to desire things that you don’t approve, or dislike something against your better judgement?
[5] Ah, but they will threaten you with punishments that overawe you. But how can they make you think of those sufferings as something you are obligated to avoid? [6] As long as desire and aversion are under your control, there is nothing more to worry about. [7] There is your opening statement, your exposition, your proof – and there lies success, the last word, and acquittal. [8] Which is why Socrates, when he was told to prepare himself for trial, said, ‘Haven’t I been preparing for it my whole life?’ [9] Preparing for it how? ‘I’ve tended to my own affairs, and never done anything in violation of the law, either publicly or privately.’
[10] If, however, you want to keep hold of externals – your body, belongings and reputation – then my advice to you is that your preparations better begin early and will have to be long. You will need to research the character of the judge, of course, and make a study of your opponent too. [11] If grovelling is called for, then be prepared to grovel – to weep and holler too. [12] Whenever externals are more important to you than your own integrity, then be prepared to serve them the remainder of your life. Don’t hedge and agree to be their slave, then change your mind later; [13] commit to one or the other position at once and without reserve. Choose to be either free or a slave, enlightened or a fool, a thoroughbred or a nag. Either resign yourself to a life of abuse till you die, or escape it immediately. For God’s sake, don’t put up with years of abuse, and then change your mind! [14] This humiliation can be avoided before it begins: just decide now what you think is truly good and bad.∗
[15] I mean, do you think that, if Socrates had any concern for what others could do to him, he would have stood before the court and said, ‘Anytus and Meletus can kill me, but cannot harm me’? [16] Do you think he was fool enough not to see that this approach was going to lead to a very different result?5 So why not make remarks that are more provocative?†
[17] It’s like my friend Heraclitus,6 who had a lawsuit about a piece of property on Rhodes. After proving to the jury that he had right on his side, he came to his concluding remarks and said, ‘But I am not going to plead with you, and I don’t care what you decide. You are more on trial here than I am.’ With the result that he sabotaged his case. [18] And why was it necessary? Don’t plead – but don’t go on to say, ‘I won’t plead’ – not unless there is a point in provoking the jurors deliberately, as in Socrates’ case. [19] As for you, if you’re planning some such parting shot, why bother to speak at all, why even show up at court? [20] Because if you want to be crucified, just wait, and the cross will come. But if reason demands that you appear and do your best to be persuasive, you must do what is entailed – while safeguarding what is yours.
[21] Thus, it is stupid to say, ‘Tell me what to do!’7 What should I tell you? It would be better to say, ‘Make my mind adaptable to any circumstance.’ [22] Saying ‘Tell me what to do’ is like an illiterate saying, ‘Tell me what to write whenever I’m presented with a name.’ [23] If I say ‘John’ and then someone else comes along and gives him ‘Jane’ instead of ‘John’ to write, what is going to happen? How is he going to write it? [24] If you have learned your letters, though, you are ready for anything anyone dictates. If you are not prepared, I don’t know what I should tell you to do. Because there may be events that call for you to act differently – and what will you do or say then? [25] So hold on to this general principle8 and you won’t need specific advice. If you hanker after externals you are going to be twirled round and round at the will of your master. [26] ‘Who’s my “master”?’ Whoever controls what you desire or dislike.
II 3 Addressed to people who recommend others to philosophers
[1] It was a shrewd reply that Diogenes9 gave the person who asked him for a letter of reference: ‘The person whose favour you seek will know that you’re human as soon as he sees you; as to whether you’re a good or a bad one – well, either he’s a competent judge of character or he isn’t. If he is, he can decide that on his own too, and if he’s not, a thousand letters from me aren’t going to make him one. [2] A coin might as well ask for a recommendation to get someone to declare it genuine. If that someone is trained in distinguishing authentic coins from counterfeit, it will speak for itself.’
[3] And so it is in life. We need standards such as exist in the case of silver, so that we can make a similar claim as the assayer’s: ‘Bring me any coin at all, I will tell you whether or not it’s genuine.’ [4] Instead, it is in analysing syllogisms that we like to be able to say, ‘Bring me any you like, and I can judge whether it is or is not analytic.’10 Why? Because we know how to analyse arguments, and have the skill a person needs to evaluate competent logicians. [5] But in life what do I do? What today I say is good tomorrow I will swear is bad. And the reason is that, compared to what I know about syllogisms, my knowledge and experience of life fall far behind.
II 4 Addressed to someone who had been caught
cheating on his wife
[1] Epictetus was saying that, as human beings, we are born to be faithful to one another, and that whoever denies this denies their humanity. Just then, a well-known scholar entered the room – one who had been caught in adultery while in Rome. [2] So Epictetus continued, ‘But what are we really doing when we throw away our innate faithfulness, to intrigue with our neighbour’s wife? We are ruining and destroying – well, what? How about the man of trust, principle and piety that once was? [3] And is that all? Aren’t we also ruining the idea of neighbourliness, friendship and community? What position are we putting ourselves in? How am I supposed to deal with you now? As a neighbour? A friend? Some friend! A fellow citizen? But how can a fellow citizen like you be trusted?
[4] ‘Look, if you were a bowl so leaky that you were good for nothing any more, you would be tossed in the rubbish dump, and no one would take the trouble to pick you out. [5] What are we going to do with a human who can’t fill the most basic human role? Fine, you can’t function as a friend; how would you do as a slave? Who would have any confidence in you, though, even in that capacity? So how would you like to be tossed in the rubbish too, like a leaky bowl – like dung?
[6] ‘Then you are heard to say, “No one gives me any respect as a man of letters.” That’s because you’re a vile and worthless human being! It’s as if wasps were to protest that they get no respect; everyone runs away from them, some people will even swat them, given the chance. [7] Your prick is such as to infect everyone you sting with heartache and aggravation. What would you have us do with you? There isn’t any place you will fit.
[8] ‘Hold it, though – doesn’t natur
e intend women to be shared?11 I grant it – but in the way a roast is shared among dinner guests. Very well, after each guest has received his share, if you feel like it, why not grab your neighbour’s portion too? Steal it when he’s not looking, or just stretch out your hand and grab all you can manage to put away. If you can’t actually snatch the meat, at least wipe your hands on it, and lick the grease off your fingers. What fine company you will make -just like Socrates’ fellow diners in the Symposium.’12
[9] ‘Well, what about the theatre – it’s open to all citizens, is it not?’
‘Sure, so when everyone has taken their seats, just come along and throw somebody out of theirs. [10] That, you may say, is how women are common property too.
‘Look, try this instead: when the judge, like the host at a private party, has assigned them, be satisfied to claim your own share, don’t be a glutton and steal someone else’s. “But I’m a scholar who understands Archedemus!” [11] You can understand Archedemus and still be an adulterer and a cheater, a wolf or an ape rather than a human being; what’s to stop you?’
II 5 How confidence and carefulness are compatible
[1] Material things per se are indifferent, but the use we make of them is not indifferent. [2] The question, then, is how to strike a balance between a calm and composed attitude on the one hand, and a conscientious outlook that is neither slack nor careless on the other.13 Model yourself on card players. [3] The chips don’t matter, and the cards don’t matter; how can I know what the deal will be? But making careful and skilful use of the deal – that’s where my responsibility begins.14 [4] So in life our first job is this, to divide and distinguish things into two categories: externals I cannot control, but the choices I make with regard to them I do control. Where will I find good and bad? [5] In me, in my choices. Don’t ever speak of ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘advantage’ or ‘harm’, and so on, of anything that is not your responsibility.
[6] ‘Well, does that mean that we shouldn’t care how we use them?’
Not at all. In fact, it is morally wrong not to care, and contrary to our nature. [7] Be careful how you use them, because it’s not unimportant – but at the same time be calm and composed, because things in themselves don’t matter. [8] Where it does matter, no one can compel me or stand in my way. And where I can be stopped or compelled, well, getting those things is not in my control – and not good or bad in any case. But the way I use them is good or bad, and depends on me.
[9] It isn’t easy to combine and reconcile the two – the carefulness of a person devoted to externals and the dignity of one who’s detached – but it’s not impossible. Otherwise happiness would be impossible.15 [10] It’s something like going on an ocean voyage. What can I do? Pick the captain, the boat, the date, and the best time to sail. [11] But then a storm hits. Well, it’s no longer my business; I have done everything I could. It’s somebody else’s problem now – namely the captain’s. [12] But then the boat actually begins to sink. What are my options? I do the only thing I am in a position to do, drown – but fearlessly, without bawling or crying out to God, because I know that what is born must also die. [13] I am not Father Time; I’m a human being, a part of the whole, like an hour in a day. Like the hour I must abide my time, and like the hour, pass. [14] What difference does it make whether I go by drowning or disease? I have to go somehow.
[15] You will find that skilled ballplayers do the same thing. It’s not the ball they value, it’s how well they throw and catch it that counts as good or bad. [16] That is where the grace and skill lie, the speed and expertise – speed such that I can’t catch one of their throws even if I spread out my coat to do it, and skill such that, if I throw the ball, however badly, one of them is bound to catch it. [17] If we are afraid to throw the ball, or nervous about catching it, then the fun is lost; and how can we preserve our composure when we are uncertain about what next to do? ‘Throw it,’ someone says, ‘Don’t throw it,’ another says, ‘Throw it already!’ says someone else. It turns into a shouting instead of a sporting match.16
[18] Socrates, you might say, knew how to play ball. In his case, the arena was the courtroom. ‘Tell me, Anytus,’ he said, ‘how can you say I don’t believe in God? We are agreed, are we not, that there are minor gods and heroes – the children of gods or the mixed issue of gods and men?’ [19] Anytus conceded the point. ‘Well, if someone acknowledged that there were animals of mixed parentage – half breeds such as mules – don’t you think they would also have to believe in the existence of horses or asses – the creatures that produced them?’17 [20] It’s just as if the man were playing ball. Only the ball in his case was life, imprisonment, exile or execution – with the prospect of losing his wife, and having his children reduced to the status of orphans. Those were the stakes of the game, and still he played, and handled the ball with aplomb.
[21] That’s what we need: the star athlete’s concentration, together with his coolness, as if it were just another ball we were playing with too. To be sure, external things of whatever kind require skill in their use, but we must not grow attached to them; whatever they are, they should only serve for us to show how skilled we are in our handling of them.
It’s like weaving: the weaver does not make the wool, he makes the best use of whatever wool he’s given. [22] God gives you food and property, and can take them back – your body too. Work with the material you are given. [23] If you come through all right, most people you meet will congratulate you on surviving. A shrewd judge, however, will praise you and share in your pleasure only if he sees that you acted honourably in the case; not, however, if he sees that your success was owed to anything dishonest. When happiness is come by fairly, others are happy for us too.
[24] ‘Then how are some externals said to be in accordance with nature, others contrary to nature?’18 That only applies to us considered separately. I agree that for my foot it is in accordance with its nature to be clean; but considered as a foot and not separately, it is right and proper for it to tramp through mud, step on needles – there may even be a time when it will have to be amputated for the sake of the body as a whole. It wouldn’t be a foot otherwise.
We have to assume that a similar distinction applies to us personally. [25] What are you? A human being. If you think of yourself as a unit apart, then it is in accordance with your nature to live to old age, to be rich, and be healthy. But if your view of yourself involves being part of a whole, then, for the sake of the whole, circumstances may make it right for you to be sick, go on a dangerous journey, endure poverty, even die before your time. Don’t complain; [26] just as it would not be a foot, don’t you realize that in isolation you would not be a human being? Because what is a human being? Part of a community – the community of gods and men, primarily, and secondarily that of the city we happen to inhabit, which is only a microcosm of the universe in toto.
[27] ‘And that’s why now I’m being put on trial?’ And why someone else falls sick, why another undertakes a voyage, why someone else dies, and still another is convicted. In this body, this universe, this community, it is inevitable that each of us faces some such event. [28] Your job, then, is to appear before the court, say what you have to say and make the best of the situation. [29] Then the judge declares you guilty. ‘I wish you well, judge. I did my part, you can decide if you did yours.’ Because the judge runs a risk too, don’t forget.
II 6 On ‘indifference’19
[1] The conjunctive argument20 is indifferent, but how you handle it is not indifferent; it is tantamount to knowledge, opinion, or ignorance. In the same way, life is indifferent, but the use we make of it is not indifferent. [2] So when you hear that even life and the like21 are indifferent, don’t become apathetic; and by the same token, when you’re advised to care about them, don’t become superficial and conceive a passion for externals.
[3] It is good to be clear about the level of your talent and training. That way, when unfamiliar topics arise, you will know enough to keep still, and no
t be put out if there are students more advanced than you. [4] You will show your own superiority in logic; and if others are disconcerted over that, mollify them by saying, ‘Well, I had a good teacher.’ [5] The same applies to subjects that require some practical training; don’t pretend you have a particular skill if you don’t yet; yield to whoever has the requisite experience; and for your own part take satisfaction in an awareness that your persistence is helping you become expert in the subject yourself.
[6] ‘Go pay so-and-so your respects.’
‘I call on him – but not on my knees.’
‘And you were not let in.’
‘Well, you see, I don’t know how to break through windows. When I find the door shut, either I have to go through the window or leave.’
[7] ‘So, talk to him.’
‘OK, I talk to him.’
‘How?’
‘As an equal.’
[8] But you did not get what you wanted – because of course that was up to him, not you. So don’t take responsibility for it. Always remember what is yours, and what belongs to other people, and you won’t have trouble. [9] Apropos, Chrysippus said: ‘As long as the future is uncertain to me I always hold to those things which are better adapted to obtaining the things in accordance with nature; for God himself has made me disposed to select them. [10] But if I knew that my destiny at present was to fall ill, I would even wish for it. My foot, too, if it had intelligence, would volunteer to get muddy.’