Epictetus — "Circumstances do not rise to meet our expectations. Events happen as they do. Pe…"
Circumstances do not rise to meet our expectations. Events happen as they do. People behave as they are. Embrace what you actually get.
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More from Epictetus
"If you always remember that God stands by you, and inspects your acts, whether in soul or body, you will not err either in your prayers or in your acts."
"The greatest good is that which is chosen in spite of fear."
"If you want to be rich, do not seek to increase your possessions, but to decrease your desires."
"Do not seek to have everything that happens happen as you wish, but choose to wish that everything that happens happen as it does, and your life will proceed smoothly."
"He who is not a good servant will not be a good master."
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.