Plain
Epictetus — The Slave

Here's the truth that philosophers keep proving over and over: good and bad exist only in how you handle your thoughts and judgments. Things outside your control can't be truly good or bad. So where's the contradiction when philosophers say you should be confident about things you can't control, but cautious about things you can? If being "bad" only happens when you misuse your will, then you only need caution where your will is involved. If things outside your control mean nothing to you, then you can be confident about them. This way, you're both cautious and confident at the same time. In fact, you're confident because you're cautious. When you're careful about the things that can actually harm you, you naturally become confident about everything else.

Discourses, That Confidence (courage) is not Inconsistent with Caution 91 of 388
Freedom & Control Calm Your Mind
Epictetus — The Slave Original

for if these things are true, which have been often said and often proved, that the nature of good is in the use of appearances, and the nature of evil likewise, and that things independent of our will do not admit either the nature of evil or of good, what paradox do the philosophers assert if they say that where things are not dependent on the will, there you should employ confidence, but where they are dependent on the will, there you should employ caution? For if the bad consists in the bad exercise of the will, caution ought only to be used where things are dependent on the will. But if things independent of the will and not in our power are nothing to us, with respect to these we must employ confidence; and thus we shall both be cautious and confident, and indeed confident because of our caution. For by employing caution towards things which are really bad, it will result that we shall have confidence with respect to things which are not so.

Discourses, That Confidence (courage) is not Inconsistent with Caution 91 of 388
Epictetus — The Slave

Some people think philosophers' ideas sound like contradictions. Let's examine whether it's really true that you can do everything with both caution and confidence. Caution seems to oppose confidence. And opposites can't work together. Here's what people find contradictory about this idea: if we said you should use caution and confidence on the same things, people would rightly accuse us of combining things that don't mix. But what's actually difficult about what we're saying?

Discourses, That Confidence (courage) is not Inconsistent with Caution 90 of 388
Knowing Yourself Calm Your Mind
Epictetus — The Slave Original

The opinion of the philosophers perhaps seem to some to be a paradox; but still let us examine as well as we can, if it is true that it is possible to do everything both with caution and with confidence. For caution seems to be in a manner contrary to confidence, and contraries are in no way consistent. That which seems to many to be a paradox in the matter under consideration in my opinion is of this kind; if we asserted that we ought to employ caution and confidence in the same things, men might justly accuse us of bringing together things which cannot be united. But now where is the difficulty in what is said?

Discourses, That Confidence (courage) is not Inconsistent with Caution 90 of 388
‹ Previous Next ›

Ancient philosophy, in plain English.

About · Support