Epictetus — "If a man has a bad smell, he knows it not, but his neighbor knows it. So too wit…"
If a man has a bad smell, he knows it not, but his neighbor knows it. So too with our faults.
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More from Epictetus
"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."
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to external things."
"You will be an admirable person, if you care for nothing but your own will."
"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…"
"Do not be surprised if you are sometimes troubled by external things; for it is not the things themselves that trouble you, but your judgment about them."
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.