Epictetus — "How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?"
How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?
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More from Epictetus
"If you wish for nothing, you will be free."
"A man is not hurt by what happens to him, but by his opinion of what happens to him."
"If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase."
"If, however, he has his victim's weakness to exploit, then his efforts are worth his while."
"We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak."
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.