Discourses, Of Inconsistency — In Plain English

Epictetus — The Slave

So you're living among people who are completely confused. They don't know what they're saying. They don't understand their problems or why they have them or how to fix them. Given this mess, I think it's worth your time to constantly watch yourself and ask: Am I one of them too? What do I think about myself? How do I act? Do I act like a wise person? Do I act like someone with self-control? Do I ever claim that I've been taught to handle whatever happens? Do I have the awareness that someone who knows nothing should have — that I know nothing? When I go to my teacher, do I go like people go to oracles, ready to obey? Or do I go like a whining schoolboy who just wants to learn facts and understand books I didn't get before, and maybe show off by explaining them to others?

Epictetus — The Slave Original

Living then among such men, who are so confused, so ignorant of what they say, and of the evils which they have or have not, and why they have them, or how they shall be relieved of them, I think it is worth the trouble for a man to watch constantly (and to ask) whether I also am one of them, what imagination I have about myself, how I conduct myself, whether I conduct myself as a prudent man, whether I conduct myself as a temperate man, whether I ever say this, that I have been taught to be prepared for everything that may happen. Have I the consciousness, which a man who knows nothing ought to have, that I know nothing? Do I go to my teacher as men go to oracles, prepared to obey? or do I like a snivelling boy go to my school to learn history and understand the books which I did not understand before, and, if it should happen so, to explain them also to others?