Plain
Epictetus — The Slave

But give me directions. Why should I give you directions? Hasn't Zeus already given you directions? Hasn't he given you what is truly yours — free from interference and obstacles — and made what isn't yours subject to interference and obstacles? What directions, what orders did you bring with you when you came from him? Keep what is yours by all means. Don't desire what belongs to others. Your integrity is yours. Your sense of honor is yours. Who can take these things from you? Who else but you can stop yourself from using them? But how do you actually behave?

Discourses, On the Same 62 of 388
Freedom & Control Knowing Yourself
Epictetus — The Slave Original

But give me directions. Why should I give you directions? Has not Zeus given you directions? Has he not given to you what is your own free from hindrance and free from impediment, and what is not your own subject to hindrance and impediment? What directions then, what kind of orders did you bring when you came from him? Keep by every means what is your own; do not desire what belongs to others. Fidelity (integrity) is your own, virtuous shame is your own; who then can take these things from you? who else than yourself will hinder you from using them? But how do you act?

Discourses, On the Same 62 of 388
Epictetus — The Slave

If these things are true, and if we're not being foolish or fake when we say that what's good or bad for people comes from their choices — and that everything else doesn't matter to us — then why are we still upset? Why are we still afraid? The things we've been worried about are beyond anyone's control. The things that other people control don't concern us. So what's left to trouble us?

Discourses, On the Same 61 of 388
Freedom & Control Calm Your Mind
Epictetus — The Slave Original

If these things are true, and if we are not silly, and are not acting hypocritically when we say that the good of man is in the will, and the evil too, and that everything else does not concern us, why are we still disturbed, why are we still afraid? The things about which we have been busied are in no man's power; and the things which are in the power of others, we care not for. What kind of trouble have we still?

Discourses, On the Same 61 of 388
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Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

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