Discourses and Selected Writings (35 page)

If you undertake a role beyond your means, you will not only embarrass yourself in that, you miss the chance of a role that you might have filled successfully.

As you are careful when you walk not to step on a nail or turn your ankle, so you should take care not to do any injury to your character at the same time.
⁸
Exercise such caution whenever we act, and we will perform the act with less risk of injury.

Each man’s body defines the limit of his material needs, as, on a small scale, the foot does with regard to shoes. Observe this principle, and you will never be in any confusion as to what those limits are. Exceed them, and you inevitably fall off a virtual cliff. As with shoes – if you don’t limit yourself to what
the foot needs, you wind up with gold heels, purple pumps or even embroidered slippers. There’s no end once the natural limit has been exceeded.

At the age of fourteen girls begin to be addressed by men as ‘ladies’. From this they infer that the world honours them for nothing so much as their potential as sexual partners. Consequently, they become preoccupied with their appearance to the exclusion of everything else. They must be made to realize that they are entitled to be called ‘ladies’ only insofar as they cultivate modesty and self-respect.

It shows a lack of refinement to spend a lot of time exercising, eating, drinking, defecating or copulating. Tending to the body’s needs should be done incidentally, as it were; the mind and its functions require the bulk of our attention.

Whenever anyone criticizes or wrongs you, remember that they are only doing or saying what they think is right. They cannot be guided by your views, only their own; so if their views are wrong, they are the ones who suffer insofar as they are misguided. I mean, if someone declares a true conjunctive proposition to be false, the proposition is unaffected, it is they who come off worse for having their ignorance exposed. With this in mind you will treat your critic with more compassion. Say to yourself each time, ‘He did what he believed was right.’

Every circumstance comes with two handles, with one of which you can hold it, while with the other conditions are insupportable. If your brother mistreats you, don’t try to come to grips with it by dwelling on the wrong he’s done (because that approach makes it unbearable); remind yourself that he’s your brother, that you two grew up together; then you’ll find that you can bear it.

The following are non-sequiturs: ‘I am richer, therefore superior to you’; or ‘I am a better speaker, therefore a better person, than you.’ These statements, on the other hand, are cogent: ‘I am richer than you, therefore my wealth is superior to yours’; and ‘I am a better speaker, therefore my diction is better than yours.’ But
you
are neither wealth nor diction.

Someone bathes in haste; don’t say he bathes badly, but in haste. Someone drinks a lot of wine; don’t say he drinks badly, but a lot. Until you know their reasons, how do you know that their actions are vicious? This will save you from perceiving one thing clearly, but then assenting to something different.

[1] Never identify yourself as a philosopher or speak much to non-philosophers about your principles; act in line with those
principles. At a dinner party, for instance, don’t tell people the right way to eat, just eat the right way. Remember how Socrates so effaced himself that people used to approach him seeking an introduction to philosophers, and he would graciously escort them; that’s how careless he was of the slight. [2] If conversation turns to a philosophical topic, keep silent for the most part, since you run the risk of spewing forth a lot of ill-digested information. If your silence is taken for ignorance, but it doesn’t upset you – well, that’s the real sign that you have begun to be a philosopher. Sheep don’t bring their owners grass to prove to them how much they’ve eaten, they digest it inwardly and outwardly bring forth milk and wool. So don’t make a show of your philosophical learning to the uninitiated, show them by your actions what you have absorbed.

When your body gets used to simple living, don’t preen over it; if you’re a water drinker, don’t take every opportunity to announce it. If you want to train for physical austerities, do it for yourself, not for outsiders. Don’t embrace marble statues;
⁹
but if you happen to be very thirsty, try taking some cold water in your mouth and spitting it out – and don’t tell anyone.

[1] The mark and attitude of the ordinary man: never look for help or harm from yourself, only from outsiders. The mark and attitude of the philosopher: look for help and harm exclusively from yourself.

[2] And the signs of a person making progress: he never criticizes, praises, blames or points the finger, or represents himself as knowing or amounting to anything. If he experiences frustration or disappointment, he points the finger at himself.
If he’s praised, he’s more amused than elated. And if he’s criticized, he won’t bother to respond. He walks around as if he were an invalid, careful not to move a healing limb before it’s at full strength. [3] He has expunged all desire, and made the things that are contrary to nature and in his control the sole target of his aversion. Impulse he only uses with detachment. He does not care if he comes across as stupid or naive. In a word, he keeps an eye on himself as if he were his own enemy lying in ambush.

Whenever someone prides himself on being able to understand and comment on Chrysippus’ books, think to yourself, ‘If Chrysippus had written more clearly, this person would have nothing to be proud of.’ As for me, I care only about understanding nature, and following its leads. So I look for someone to interpret nature for me, and after hearing that Chrysippus can, I turn to him. So far, I have no cause for conceit. When I find that Chrysippus really can interpret nature, it still remains for me to act on his suggestions – which is the only thing one can be proud of. If I admire the interpretation, I have turned into a literary critic instead of a philosopher, the only difference being that, instead of Homer, I’m interpreting Chrysippus. But whenever people ask me to interpret Chrysippus for them, I only feel shame that my actions don’t meet or measure up to what he says.

Whatever your mission, stick by it as if it were a law and you would be committing sacrilege to betray it. Pay no attention to whatever people might say; this no longer should influence you.

[1] How long will you wait before you demand the best of yourself, and trust reason to determine what is best? You have been introduced to the essential doctrines, and claim to understand them. So what kind of teacher are you waiting for that you delay putting these principles into practice until he comes? You’re a grown man already, not a child any more. If you remain careless and lazy, making excuse after excuse, fixing one day after another when you will finally take yourself in hand, your lack of progress will go unnoticed, and in the end you will have lived and died unenlightened.

[2] Finally decide that you are an adult who is going to devote the rest of your life to making progress. Abide by what seems best as if it were an inviolable law. When faced with anything painful or pleasurable, anything bringing glory or disrepute, realize that the crisis is now, that the Olympics have started, and waiting is no longer an option; that the chance for progress, to keep or lose, turns on the events of a single day. [3] That’s how Socrates got to be the person he was, by depending on reason to meet his every challenge. You’re not yet Socrates, but you can still live as if you want to be him.

[1] The first and most important field of philosophy is the application of principles such as ‘Do not lie.’ Next come the proofs, such as why we should not lie. The third field supports and articulates the proofs, by asking, for example, ‘How does this prove it? What exactly is a proof, what is logical inference, what is contradiction, what is truth, what is falsehood?’ [2] Thus, the third field is necessary because of the second, and the second because of the first. The most important, though, the one that should occupy most of our time, is the first. But we do just the opposite. We are preoccupied with the third field and
give that all our attention, passing the first by altogether. The result is that we lie – but have no difficulty proving why we shouldn’t.

[1] In every circumstance we should have the following sentiments handy:

Lead me, Zeus, lead me, Destiny, To the goal I was long ago assigned

And I will follow without hesitation. Even should I resist, In a spirit of perversity, I will have to follow nonetheless.

[2]
Whoever yields to necessity graciously We account wise in God’s ways.
¹⁰

[3] ‘Dear Crito if it pleases the gods, so be it.’

[4] ‘Anytus and Meletus can kill me, but they cannot harm me.’

(Note: Most names that appear only once are glossed in the notes and not included here in the glossary.)

Academy and Academics
.
See
Plato, Sceptics.

Achilles
. Main character in Homer’s
Iliad
, reputed the best fighter on the Greek side.

Admetus
. Character in Euripides’ play
Alcestis
, who is released from impending death on condition he can find someone to take his place.

Aeolus
. Greek god in control of the winds.

Agamemnon
. Character in Homer’s
Iliad
, commander-in-chief of the Greek forces in the Trojan War.

Agrippinus
. Quintus Paconius Agrippinus, Roman senator, joined the Pisonian conspiracy against Nero in 66 ad; convicted and sentenced to exile.

Alexander the Great
, 356–323 bc. Macedonian prince who at the age of twenty initiated military campaigns of unprecedented ambition, acquiring an empire that eventually included Greece, Egypt and Asia as far as western India.

Antipater of Sidon
, fl. first century
BC
. Stoic philosopher.

Antipater of Tarsus
. Stoic philosopher and head of the Stoic school in Athens
c.
152–
c.
129
BC
.

Antisthenes of Athens
,
c.
445–360 bc. Follower of Socrates; credited with helping to inspire the Cynicism of Diogenes and described by Plato as ‘Socrates gone mad’.

Anytus
. Along with Meletus, one of Socrates’ chief accusers on the charges of impiety and corrupting the youth of Athens that resulted in his death.

Apollodorus of Seleucia
. Stoic philosopher of the late second century
BC
.

Archedemus
. Stoic philosopher active in the second century
BC
.

Asclepius
. Greek god of healing.

Augustus
, 63
BC
–14
AD
, born Gaius Octavius, adoptive son of Julius Caesar and emperor of Rome (27
BC
–14
AD
). Founder of Epictetus’ hometown of Nicopolis; after his death worshipped as a god in Nicopolis and throughout the Empire.

Boreas
. In Greek mythology, name of the north wind.

Caesar
. Title of the emperor of Rome from Augustus to Hadrian.

Chryseis
. A character in Homer’s
Iliad
, the name of Agamemnon’s captive ‘prize’ whom he replaces with Achilles, leading to a quarrel, and Achilles’ decision to withdraw from the fighting.

Chrysippus of Soli (Cilicia)
,
c.
280–208
BC
. The third head of the Stoic school in Athens, and its acknowledged authority in most doctrinal matters.

Cleanthes of Assos
,
c.
331–232
BC
. The second head of the Stoic school in Athens, author of a
Hymn to Zeus
that Epictetus often quotes.

Crates of Thebes
, fl. late fourth–early third century
BC
. Cynic pupil of Diogenes of Sinope, teacher of the Stoic Zeno of Citium.

Crinis
. Stoic philosopher of the late second century bc, noted mainly for his definitions.

Croesus
, fl. sixth century
BC
. King of Lydia, proverbial for great wealth, defeated in an ill-considered war of aggression against Cyrus of Persia.

Demeter
. Greek god of agriculture, mother of Triptolemus.

Diodorus Cronus
, d.
c.
284
BC
. Leader of the Dialectical school of philosophy, teacher of Zeno of Citium and author of the Master Argument (II 19, 1–9).

Diogenes of Babylon
. Head of the Stoic school in early to mid-second century
BC
.

Diogenes Laertius
, fl.
c.
200
AD
. Author of the
Lives of the Philosophers
, a major source for Epicurean and early Stoic doctrine.

Diogenes of Sinope
, fl. mid-fourth century
BC
. Founder of Cynicism; second only to Socrates in the number of times he is cited as a model in the
Discourses
.

Domitian
. Emperor of Rome (81–96
AD
). His rule, especially in its last years, was notoriously oppressive.