The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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ETHICS: EXPOSITION 145
is the fountain of good ; ever dig, and it will
ever well forth water."
Happiness consists, therefore,
not in the possession of anything external, but in con
of will illuminated
trol of a man s own self, in strength
by reason. It is inward, and resides in his ability to
estimate the true worth of things and to act accordingly.
Says Epictetus (Diss. iv. 4): "There is only oneway
to happiness, fjna 68os rl evpoiav (let it be ready to hand
in the morning, during the day, and at night)
namely,
to turn away from what is beyond the power of choice,
to regard nothing as one s own, to give over all things
to the divinity (TO) Sai//,oi/iu)),
to fortune, making them the
superintendents of these things, whom Zeno also has
This presupposes the distinction that there
made so."
are some things
not in our power
in our power
(TO, OVK e<
(TO. *<j>
^/xtv).
riplv) and others
Health, wealth,
property, friends, the body, death, and such like, are
outwith us and beyond our command they "depend
on chance," as Cicero puts it: therefore, we are to sit
loose to them, to use them as things "indifferent."
But our own will,
and the formation of judgments and
opinions, assent and approval these are in our power,
and in the proper management of them consists our
felicity and peace. 1 In our power, in particular, is
virtue and the choice of what is right and good ;
pursuit
in the
of which lie man s distinction and his bliss.
"Take care, when you see a man honoured above
others, or great in
power, or otherwise esteemed, that
you do not regard him as happy, being carried away
by the appearance. For if the essence of the good be
in those things that are in our own power, neither envy
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1
Sec Epictetus, Diss. i. i and iv. i.