Quote
By Epictetus
If you ever happen to turn your attention to externals, for the pleasure of any one, be assured that you have ruined your scheme of life. Be contented, then, in everything, with being a philosopher; and, if you wish to seem so likewise to any one, appear so to yourself, and it will suffice you.
- Source
- The Works of Epictetus: The Enchiridion, or Manual (translated by Thomas Wentworth Higginson), 1866 · chapter XXIII, p. 383
- Read at
- Little, Brown, and Company, Boston, 1866 (Higginson's translation, based on Elizabeth Carter's; copyright 1865)
Share this quote
About this quote
From the Enchiridion ("Manual"), chapter XXIII, in Thomas Wentworth Higginson's English translation (Boston, 1866). Epictetus taught in Greek and wrote nothing himself. His student Arrian recorded his teaching and compiled the Enchiridion, around 135 CE, so this is Arrian's record in the translator's wording.