Epictetus — "If you have a mind to be a philosopher, prepare yourself from the first to be la…"
If you have a mind to be a philosopher, prepare yourself from the first to be laughed at, to be sneered at by the multitude.
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More from Epictetus
"It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them."
"First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do."
"We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak."
"The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going."
"If you wish to be good, know that you are bad."
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.