Discourses, What Things We Should Exchange for Other Things

Epictetus — The Slave

You must not chase anything else — not your body, your possessions, political office, your reputation, or anything like that. God doesn't allow you to chase these things. If he wanted them to be good for you, he would have made them good for you. But he hasn't. So you can't disobey his commands. Protect what is truly your own good in everything. As for everything else, only deal with them as much as you're allowed to, and only in ways that make sense. Be content with just that. If you don't do this, you'll be miserable. You'll fail at everything. You'll be blocked and frustrated at every turn. These are the laws that come from above. These are your orders. You should explain these laws to others and follow them yourself — not the laws of legal experts like Masurius and Cassius.

Epictetus — The Slave Original

But I must not claim (seek) anything else, neither body nor possession, nor magistracy, nor good report, nor in fact anything. For he (God) does not allow me to claim (seek) them, for if he had chosen, he would have made them good for me; but he has not done so, and for this reason I cannot transgress his commands. Preserve that which is your own good in everything; and as to every other thing, as it is permitted, and so far as to behave consistently with reason in respect to them, content with this only. If you do not, you will be unfortunate, you will fail in all things, you will be hindered, you will be impeded. These are the laws which have been sent from thence (from God); these are the orders. Of these laws a man ought to be an expositor, to these he ought to submit, not to those of Masurius and Cassius.