Work
Enchiridion
“Some things are within our control and some things are not. Within our control are opinion, motivation, desire, aversion, and our actions. Not within our control are our body, property, reputation, and office. ”
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About this work
The Enchiridion, or Handbook, is a compact manual of Stoic ethics drawn from the teaching of Epictetus and set down by his student Arrian. It skips theory and goes straight to practice: a series of precepts for keeping your freedom and your peace in any circumstance. Short enough to read in an hour and dense enough to reread for a lifetime, it has been a starting point for Stoics for nearly two thousand years.
About the author — Epictetus
Epictetus (c. 50 to 135 CE) was a Greek Stoic philosopher born into slavery who, once freed, founded a school in Nicopolis. He taught that we are disturbed not by events but by our judgments about them, and that lasting freedom comes from mastering what is genuinely ours: our own choices.
9 quotes from this work
Some things are within our control and some things are not. Within our control are opinion, motivation, desire, aversion, and our actions. Not within our control are our body, property, reputation, and office.
If you wish to improve, be content to appear foolish and stupid regarding externals.
He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about theorems, but act conformably to them.
Remember that it is not he who gives abuse or blows who affronts, but the view we take of these things as insulting.
Everything has two handles, the one by which it may be carried, the other by which it cannot.
It is the act of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition; it is the act of one who has begun to be instructed, to lay the blame on himself; and of one whose instruction is completed, neither to blame another, nor himself.
When you do anything from a clear judgment that it ought to be done, never shun the being seen to do it, even though the world should make a wrong supposition about it.
Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are.
People also ask
What is the Enchiridion of Epictetus?
A short handbook of Stoic ethics compiled by his student Arrian. It distills Epictetus's teaching into practical precepts for living freely and calmly whatever happens.
Is the Enchiridion worth reading?
Yes. Along with Marcus Aurelius's Meditations it is one of the classic entry points to Stoicism, brief enough for a first read and rich enough to return to for years.
What is the main lesson of the Enchiridion?
That some things are within our power and others are not, and peace comes from concerning yourself only with the first: your own judgments, desires, and actions.