Plain
Epictetus — The Slave

Let's look at your principles too. It's clear that you don't value your own choices at all. Instead, you look to things outside your control. For example: What will this person say? What will people think of you? Will they see you as educated? Have you read Chrysippus or Antipater? If you've also read Archedamus, you think you have everything you need. Why are you still worried that you won't show us who you are? Want me to tell you what kind of person you've already shown us? You've shown yourself to be petty, whining, angry, cowardly, criticizing everything, blaming everyone, never calm, and full of yourself. That's what you've shown us.

Discourses, In What a Man Ought to Be Exercised Who Has Made Proficiency; and That We Neglect the Chief Things 210 of 388
Knowing Yourself What Matters Most
Epictetus — The Slave Original

Let us look at your principles also. For is it not plain that you value not at all your own will ([Greek: proairesis]), but you look externally to things which are independent of your will? For instance, what will a certain person say? and what will people think of you? Will you be considered a man of learning; have you read Chrysippus or Antipater? for if you have read Archedamus also, you have every thing (that you can desire). Why you are still uneasy lest you should not show us who you are? Would you let me tell you what manner of man you have shown us that you are? You have exhibited yourself to us as a mean fellow, querulous, passionate, cowardly, finding fault with everything, blaming everybody, never quiet, vain: this is what you have exhibited to us.

Discourses, In What a Man Ought to Be Exercised Who Has Made Proficiency; and That We Neglect the Chief Things 210 of 388
Epictetus — The Slave

Then you panic. You turn pale. You immediately shout, 'I'll show him who I am! I'll prove I'm a great philosopher!' But these very reactions prove what you are. Why do you need to prove it through other methods? Don't you know how Diogenes exposed one of the sophists? He just held up his middle finger at him. When the man flew into a rage, Diogenes said, 'There he is — I've pointed him out to you.' You can't point to a person the way you point to a stone or a piece of wood. When someone reveals a person's principles, that's when they truly show you who that person is.

Discourses, In What a Man Ought to Be Exercised Who Has Made Proficiency; and That We Neglect the Chief Things 209 of 388
Knowing Yourself Human Nature
Epictetus — The Slave Original

then you are confounded, you grow pale, you cry out immediately, I will show him who I am, that I am a great philosopher. It is seen by these very things: why do you wish to show it by others? Do you not know that Diogenes pointed out one of the sophists in this way by stretching out his middle finger? And then when the man was wild with rage, This, he said, is the certain person: I have pointed him out to you. For a man is not shown by the finger, as a stone or a piece of wood; but when any person shows the man's principles, then he shows him as a man.

Discourses, In What a Man Ought to Be Exercised Who Has Made Proficiency; and That We Neglect the Chief Things 209 of 388
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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