Plain
Epictetus — The Slave

But if someone has put all his effort into reading books, and only works at that, and has traveled just for that, I tell him to go home right away. Don't neglect what matters there. What he traveled for is worthless. The real work is something else: learning how to rid your life of complaining and groaning and saying "Poor me" and "How miserable I am." Learn to rid it of bad luck and disappointment too. Learn what death really is, and exile, and prison, and poison. Then when you're in chains, you can say like Crito did: "Dear friend, if this is what the gods want, then so be it."

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What Matters Most Facing Hardship
Epictetus — The Slave Original

But if he has strained his efforts to the practice of reading books, and labors only at this, and has travelled for this, I tell him to return home immediately, and not to neglect his affairs there; for this for which he has travelled is nothing. But the other thing is something, to study how a man can rid his life of lamentation and groaning, and saying, Woe to me, and wretched that I am, and to rid it also of misfortune and disappointment, and to learn what death is, and exile, and prison, and poison, that he may be able to say when he is in fetters, Dear Crito, if it is the will of the gods that it be so, let it be so;

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Epictetus — The Slave

So where do you find real progress? Here's where: when someone stops chasing external things and turns inward to work on their own will. They train it and improve it through hard work. They make it natural, strong, free, unrestricted, unblocked, trustworthy, and humble. And they learn this key truth: anyone who wants or avoids things outside their control can never be trustworthy or free. They'll be forced to change with those things and get tossed around like a ship in a storm. They'll have to bow down to others who can give or take away what they want. Finally, when this person wakes up each morning, they follow these rules. They wash themselves with integrity. They eat with moderation. In every situation that comes up, they apply their core principles — just like a runner focuses on running and a voice coach focuses on voice training. This is the person who truly makes progress. This is the person whose journey hasn't been wasted.

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Knowing Yourself Freedom & Control
Epictetus — The Slave Original

Where then is progress? If any of you, withdrawing himself from externals, turns to his own will ([Greek: proairesis]) to exercise it and to improve it by labor, so as to make it conformable to nature, elevated, free, unrestrained, unimpeded, faithful, modest; and if he has learned that he who desires or avoids the things which are not in his power can neither be faithful nor free, but of necessity he must change with them and be tossed about with them as in a tempest, and of necessity must subject himself to others who have the power to procure or prevent what lie desires or would avoid; finally, when he rises in the morning, if he observes and keeps these rules, bathes as a man of fidelity, eats as a modest man; in like manner, if in every matter that occurs he works out his chief principles ([Greek: ta proaegoumena]) as the runner does with reference to running, and the trainer of the voice with reference to the voice—this is the man who truly makes progress, and this is the man who has not travelled in vain.

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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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