Discourses, Of Providence — In Plain English

Epictetus — The Slave

You travel all the way to Olympia to see Phidias's statue, and you all think it would be terrible to die without seeing such things. But you don't need to travel anywhere to see God's works — they're right in front of you wherever you are. Won't you want to see and understand them? Don't you realize what you are, or what you were born for, or why you were given the ability to see?

But you might say, "There are unpleasant and troublesome things in life." Well, aren't there unpleasant things at Olympia too? Don't you get scorched by the heat? Don't you get crushed by crowds? Don't you have terrible bathing facilities? Don't you get soaked when it rains? Don't you deal with noise, shouting, and other annoying things? But I assume you put up with all that because the spectacle is so magnificent.

Epictetus — The Slave Original

But you take a journey to Olympia to see the work of Phidias, and all of you think it a misfortune to die without having seen such things. But when there is no need to take a journey, and where a man is, there he has the works (of God) before him, will you not desire to see and understand them? Will you not perceive either what you are, or what you were born for, or what this is for which you have received the faculty of sight? But you may say, There are some things disagreeable and troublesome in life. And are there none at Olympia? Are you not scorched? Are you not pressed by a crowd? Are you not without comfortable means of bathing? Are you not wet when it rains? Have you not abundance of noise, clamor, and other disagreeable things? But I suppose that setting all these things off against the magnificence of the spectacle, you bear and endure.