Plain
Epictetus — The Slave

So this faculty of will — it exists among all the other faculties that are blind and dumb. These other faculties can't see anything beyond their basic jobs. They just serve the will. But the will alone sees clearly. It sees what each faculty is worth. Will this faculty tell us that something else is the best? Or will it say that it itself is the best? What else does your eye do when it opens except see? But who tells you whether you should look at another man's wife? And how you should look? Your will does. Who tells you whether to believe what someone says? And if you do believe it, who tells you whether to get worked up about it? Isn't it your will?

Discourses, On the Power of Speaking 192 of 388
Freedom & Control Knowing Yourself
Epictetus — The Slave Original

Will this faculty then, seeing that it is amidst all the other faculties which are blind and dumb and unable to see anything else except the very acts for which they are appointed in order to minister to this (faculty) and serve it, but this faculty alone sees sharp and sees what is the value of each of the rest; will this faculty declare to us that anything else is the best, or that itself is? And what else does the eye do when it is opened than see? But whether we ought to look on the wife of a certain person, and in what manner, who tells us? The faculty of the will. And whether we ought to believe what is said or not to believe it, and if we do believe, whether we ought to be moved by it or not, who tells us? Is it not the faculty of the will?

Discourses, On the Power of Speaking 192 of 388
Epictetus — The Slave

When you want to know what something is worth, who do you ask? Who gives you the answer? How can any other ability be stronger than this one — the one that uses all the others like servants and tests each one and makes judgments about them? Which of your abilities knows what it actually is and what it's worth? Which one knows when to work and when to stop? What ability opens and closes your eyes? What turns them away from things they shouldn't look at and points them toward other things? Is it your eyesight? No. It's your will. What ability opens and closes your ears? What makes them curious and eager to listen, or completely uninterested in what's being said? Is it your hearing? No. It's nothing other than your will.

Discourses, On the Power of Speaking 191 of 388
Knowing Yourself Freedom & Control
Epictetus — The Slave Original

And if you inquire what is the value of each thing, of whom do you inquire? who answers you? How then can any other faculty be more powerful than this, which uses the rest as ministers and itself proves each and pronounces about them? for which of them knows what itself is, and what is its own value? which of them knows when it ought to employ itself and when not? what faculty is it which opens and closes the eyes, and turns them away from objects to which it ought not to apply them and does apply them to other objects? Is it the faculty of vision? No, but it is the faculty of the will. What is that faculty which closes and opens the ears? what is that by which they are curious and inquisitive, or on the contrary unmoved by what is said? is it the faculty of hearing? It is no other than the faculty of the will.

Discourses, On the Power of Speaking 191 of 388
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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