Discourses, To or Against Those Who Obstinately Persist in What They Have Determined

Epictetus — The Slave

When people hear that you should be firm and that your will is naturally free — not forced by anyone — while everything else can be blocked, enslaved, or controlled by others, they think they should stick to every decision they've ever made without changing course. But first, the decision itself needs to be sound. I want strength in the body, but the kind that exists in a healthy, athletic body. If I can see that you have the strength of a madman and you're bragging about it, I'll tell you: "Go find a doctor. That's not strength — that's weakness." Something similar happens to people who listen to these teachings the wrong way.

Epictetus — The Slave Original

When some persons have heard these words, that a man ought to be constant (firm), and that the will is naturally free and not subject to compulsion, but that all other things are subject to hindrance, to slavery, and are in the power of others, they suppose that they ought without deviation to abide by everything which they have determined. But in the first place that which has been determined ought to be sound (true). I require tone (sinews) in the body, but such as exists in a healthy body, in an athletic body; but if it is plain to me that you have the tone of a frenzied man and you boast of it, I shall say to you, Man, seek the physician; this is not tone, but atony (deficiency in right tone). In a different way something of the same kind is felt by those who listen to these discourses in a wrong manner.