The Stoic Creed - College of Stoic Philosophers

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THE STOIC CREED
Once more, Stoicism, like Christianity, was distin
guished by its appreciation of man s dignity and worth.
The Stoics conceived men to be akin to God, rays
from the divine light, parts of the primal substance,
even children of the one great Father for we also,"
said Cleanthes, are Thy offspring."
As a consequence of this, they strenuously insisted
upon the cultivation of self-respect and of an independ
ent spirit, in a way and with an urgency that would
have satisfied Kant himself or the poet Burns. To
them, as to Kant, self-respect was not so much a virtue
as the foundation of all virtue. In the 25th section of
the Encheiridion, Epictetus puts it in a very homely
way: much are lettuces sold for? An obolus,
perhaps. If any one, then, give up the obolus and
receive the lettuces, and you do not give up and receive,
think not that you
are worse off than he who receives.
For, as he has the lettuces, so you have the obolus,
which you did not give. Likewise, also, in the other
matter. Have you not been invited to the feast of so
and so? It was because you did not give to him who
issues the invitation the price at which the supper is
sold ;
and he sells it for flattery, he sells it for obse
quiousness. Give then the price, if it will profit
you, for which it is sold. But if you will not give the
price and yet will have the things, you are greedy
and fatuous. Have you nothing, then, in lieu of the
supper? Yes, indeed, you have this, that you have
not flattered him whom you would not ; you have
this, that you have not endured his door-attendants."