The Stoic HANDBOOK - College of Stoic Philosophers

is real and substantial, even as it reveals the inflated and showy but filled
with emptiness.
Letter XCII, 3: What is the happy life? It is peace of mind and lasting
tranquility. This will be yours if you possess greatness of soul. It will be
yours if you possess the steadfastness that resolutely clings to a good
judgment just reached. How do you reach this condition? By gaining a
complete view of truth, by maintaining order, measure, fitness, and a will
that is inoffensive and kindly, that is intent upon reason and never departs
therefrom, that commands at the same time love and admiration. In short,
to give you the principle in brief compass, the wise man's soul ought to
be such as would be proper for a god.
Epictetus (60-120 CE)
The original discourses were class notes written by Arrian, a devoted
pupil of Epictetus, the great Stoic teacher and former slave. Arrian went
on to become a distinguished statesman during the reign of Emperor
Hadrian, but it is for these class notes that he will always be
remembered. The following passages have been selected to give you both
the essence of Epictetus's lectures and the manner in which he presented
them. They are based upon George Long's 1904 translation and have
been edited by Erik Wiegardt to reflect a more contemporary punctuation
and prose.
Book I
Chapter 1
Of all the human faculties, you will find only one which is capable of
both contemplating itself and of approving or disapproving of itself. Does
grammar possess the contemplating power? No....when you write
something to your friend grammar will tell you what words you should
write, but whether you should write or not grammar will not tell you. And
so it is with music as to musical sounds, but whether you should sing at
the present time and play on the lute, or do neither, music will not tell
you. What faculty then will tell you? That which contemplates both itself
and all other things. And what is this faculty? The rational faculty; for
this is the only faculty that we have received [from Nature] which
examines itself...and all other faculties.
As was then fitting, that which is best of all and supreme over all is the
only thing which the gods have placed in our power – so that we may
make the right use of appearances. All other things they have not placed
in our power.
But now, when it is in our power to look after one thing, and to attach
ourselves to it, we prefer to look after many things, and to be bound to
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