Discourses, Of Finery in Dress

Epictetus — The Slave

A young rhetoric teacher came to visit Epictetus. His hair was styled too carefully and his clothes were flashy. Epictetus said to him, "Tell me — don't you think some dogs are beautiful and some horses are beautiful? Same with all other animals?" The young man said, "Yes, I do." "Then aren't some people beautiful and others ugly?" "Of course." "Do we call them beautiful for the same reasons? Or is each one beautiful for something different? Think about it this way. We see that a dog is naturally made for one purpose, a horse for another, and a nightingale for yet another purpose. So we can say each animal is beautiful when it's excellent at what it's naturally supposed to do. But since each animal has a different nature, each one is beautiful in a different way. Don't you think so?" The young man agreed.

Epictetus — The Slave Original

A certain young man, a rhetorician, came to see Epictetus, with his hair dressed more carefully than was usual and his attire in an ornamental style; whereupon Epictetus said, Tell me if you do not think that some dogs are beautiful and some horses, and so of all other animals. I do think so, the youth replied. Are not then some men also beautiful and others ugly? Certainly. Do we then for the same reason call each of them in the same kind beautiful, or each beautiful for something peculiar? And you will judge of this matter thus. Since we see a dog naturally formed for one thing, and a horse for another, and for another still, as an example, a nightingale, we may generally and not improperly declare each of them to be beautiful then when it is most excellent according to its nature; but since the nature of each is different, each of them seems to me to be beautiful in a different way. Is it not so? He admitted that it was.