Plain
Epictetus — The Slave

Chrysippus put it well: "As long as the future is uncertain, I stick with choices that help preserve what's natural. God gave me the ability to choose this way. But if I knew for certain I was destined to get sick, I would even move toward the sickness. Think about it — if your foot could think, it would step into mud when it needed to. Why do ears of corn grow? So they can dry out. And why do they dry out? So they can be harvested."

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Freedom & Control Facing Hardship
Epictetus — The Slave Original

Chrysippus therefore said well, So long as future things are uncertain, I always cling to those which are more adapted to the conservation of that which is according to nature; for God himself has given me the faculty of such choice. But if I knew that it was fated (in the order of things) for me to be sick, I would even move towards it; for the foot also, if it had intelligence, would move to go into the mud. For why are ears of corn produced? Is it not that they may become dry? And do they not become dry that they may be reaped?

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Epictetus — The Slave

Go greet someone. How should you do it? Without being servile or pathetic. But what if they shut you out? Well, you haven't learned to climb through windows. When you find the door closed, you either go back or find another way in. But still talk to them. How? Without groveling. But what if you don't get what you wanted from them? That was their choice to make, not yours. So why are you demanding something that belongs to someone else? Always remember what's yours and what belongs to others. Then you won't get upset.

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Freedom & Control Knowing Yourself
Epictetus — The Slave Original

Go and salute a certain person. How? Not meanly. But I have been shut out, for I have not learned to make my way through the window; and when I have found the door shut, I must either come back or enter through the window. But still speak to him. In what way? Not meanly. But suppose that you have not got what you wanted. Was this your business, and not his? Why then do you claim that which belongs to another? Always remember what is your own, and what belongs to another; and you will not be disturbed.

Discourses, Of Indifference 111 of 388
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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