Epictetus — "God save me from fools with a little philosophy—no one is more difficult to reac…"
God save me from fools with a little philosophy—no one is more difficult to reach.
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More from Epictetus
"Difficulties are things that show what men are."
"The greater part of what we say and do is unnecessary, and if a man would cut it out, he would have more leisure and less disturbance."
"Remember that you are an actor in a play, and that the play is made by the author. If he wishes it to be short, it is short; if long, it is long. If he wishes you to act the part of a poor man, see th…"
"When you have done good and received good, why do you look for any other reward?"
"Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well."
About Epictetus (c. 50-135 CE)
Greek Stoic philosopher and former slave whose Discourses (recorded by his student Arrian) shaped Marcus Aurelius and the modern Stoic revival. Closely associated with Seneca (earlier Roman Stoic) and Marcus Aurelius (his student-by-text on the imperial throne). For an intellectual contrast, see Epicurus, Greek philosopher of pleasure-as-tranquility — the Stoic-Epicurean rivalry was the central philosophical debate of the Hellenistic and Roman world for 400 years — Epicurean materialist hedonism is the precise alternative the Stoic discipline-of-acceptance was built against.
The standard scholarly entry points to Epictetus's work: A.A. Long (UC Berkeley, Classics) — Epictetus: A Stoic and Socratic Guide to Life (2002); Pierre Hadot (Collège de France) — Philosophy as a Way of Life (1995); Anthony R. Birley (Manchester, Roman historian) — Marcus Aurelius (1987) — the standard biography of Epictetus's most famous student. These are the works graduate seminars cite when teaching Epictetus.