Epictetus — "Fortify yourself with contentment, for this is an impregnable fortress."
Fortify yourself with contentment, for this is an impregnable fortress.
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More from Epictetus
"When you have to deal with a man who is angry, remember that he is not angry with you, but with himself; he is only venting his anger on you."
"First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak."
"To say that 'I will do it tomorrow' is to say that 'I will not do it at all.'"
"If a man is unhappy, this must be due to his own fault, that he does not understand that it is in his power to be happy."
"Consider at what price you sell your integrity; but do not sell it for a small price."
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.