Discourses by Epictetus (good books to read for beginners txt) 📕

even provide well for the comfort of those whom they leave behind them. The conclusion seems to be that they prefer living in this world to leaving it, that their complaints are idle talk; and that, being men of weak minds and great vanity, they assume the philosopher’s name, and while they try to make others as dissatisfied as they profess themselves to be, they are really enjoying themselves after their fashion as much as they can. These men, though they may have the means of living with as much comfort as the conditions of human life permit, are dissatisfied, and they would, if they could, make as dissatisfied as themselves those who have less means of making life tolerable. These grumblers are not the men who give their money or their labor or their lives for increasing the happiness of mankind and diminishing the unavoidable sufferings of human life; but they find it easier to blame God, when they believe in him; or to find fault with things as they are, which is more absurd, when they do not believe in God, and when they ought to make the best that they can of the conditions under which we live. ↩

The text is εἰκῆ ἐξελθόντα. Heinrich Meibom suggested εἰσελθόντα in place of ἐξελθόντα: Johann Schweighäuser appears to prefer εἰσελθόντα, and I have translated this word in the version. I think that there is no doubt about the emendation. ↩

“E caelo descendit γνῶθι σεαυτόν” Juvenal Satires xi 27. The expression “Know thyself” is attributed to several persons, and to Socrates among them. Self-knowledge is one of the most difficult kinds of knowledge; and no man has it completely. Men either estimate their powers too highly, and this is named vanity, self conceit, or arrogance; or they think too meanly of their powers and do not accomplish what they might accomplish if they had reasonable self confidence. ↩

“Compare this with the Christian precepts of forbearance and love to enemies, Matthew 5:39⁠–⁠44. The reader will observe that Christ specifies higher injuries and provocations than Epictetus doth; and requires of all his followers, what Epictetus describes only as the duty of one or two extraordinary persons, as such.” —⁠Elizabeth Carter ↩

John Upton quotes Hieronymus, Adversus Jovianum book ii, where the thing is told in a different way. ↩

I have not translated, because I do not understand, the words δτι κατηγορεῖ. See Johann Schweighäuser’s note. ↩

This must be the meaning. Heinrich Meibom suggested that the true reading is Κυνικοῦ, and not Κυνικόν: and Johann Schweighäuser seems to be of the same mind. I have repeated the word Cynic several times to remove all ambiguity in this section. ↩

See Johann Schweighäuser’s note on ὥστε ἄν σοι δοκῇ. ↩

The Stoics recommended marriage, the procreation of children, the discharge of magisterial offices, and the duties of social life generally. ↩

“It is remarkable that Epictetus here uses the same word (ἀπερισπάστως) with St. Paul, 1 Corinthians 7:35, and urges the same consideration, of applying wholly to the service of God, to dissuade from marriage. His observation too that the state of things was then (ὡς ἐν παρατάξει) like that of an army prepared for battle, nearly resembles the Apostle’s (ἐνεστῶσα ἀνάγκη) present necessity. St. Paul says, 2 Timothy 2:4 (οὐδεὶς στρατευόμενος ἐμπλέκεται etc.), no man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of life. So Epictetus says here that a Cynic must not be (ἐμπεπλεγμένον) in relations, etc. From these and many other passages of Epictetus one would be inclined to think that he was not unacquainted with St. Paul’s Epistles or that he had heard something of the Christian doctrine.” —⁠Elizabeth Carter.

I do not find any evidence of Epictetus being acquainted with the Epistles of Paul. It is possible that he had heard something of the Christian doctrine, but I have not observed any evidence of the fact. Epictetus and Paul have not the same opinion about marriage, for Paul says that “if they cannot contain, let them marry: for it is better to marry than to burn.” Accordingly his doctrine is “to avoid fornication let every man have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband.” He does not directly say what a man should do when he is not able to maintain a wife; but the inference is plain what he will do (1 Corinthians 7:2). Paul’s view of marriage differs from that of Epictetus, who recommends marriage. Paul does not: he writes, “I say therefore to the unmarried and widows: It is good for them if they abide even as I.” He does not acknowledge marriage and the begetting of children as a duty; which Epictetus did.

In the present condition of the world Epictetus says that the “minister of God” should not marry, because the cares of a family would distract him and make him unable to discharge his duties. There is sound sense in this. A “minister of God” should not be distracted by the cares of a family, especially if he is poor. ↩

The word is ἀνάτεινον. Compare book II chapter XVII at 9. ↩

In the text it is γραφεῖα, τιλλάρια. It is probable that there should be only one word. See Johann Schweighäuser’s note. Horace (Satires i 6, 73) speaks of boys going to school:

Laevo suspensi loculos tabulamque lacerto.

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The wife of Crates was Hipparchia, who persisted against all advice in marrying Crates and lived with him exactly as he lived. Diogenes Laërtius, Lives