Epictetus — "First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
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More from Epictetus
"When you have decided that a thing is good, and you cling to it, and you are not disturbed by it, then you have found your true good."
"The price of apathy is to be at the mercy of those who are not."
"Show me a man who is sick and happy, in danger and happy, dying and happy, exiled and happy, disgraced and happy: show him to me, for the sake of the gods! I long to see a Stoic."
"When you are about to say anything, first examine what you are going to say, and then speak."
"For there is some use even in an ass, but not so much as in an ox: there is also use in a dog, but not so much as in a slave: there is also some use in a slave, but not so much as in citizens: there i…"
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.