Epictetus — "It is better to starve than to eat meat offered to idols."
It is better to starve than to eat meat offered to idols.
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More from Epictetus
"If you are struck by the appearance of any pleasure, guard yourself against being carried away by it; but let the thing wait for you, and allow yourself a short delay. Then think of two times: a time …"
"If a man is unhappy, this must be due to his own fault, that he has forgotten that all things are in his own power."
"When you are going to meet with any person, and particularly one of those who are considered to be great, represent to yourself what Socrates or Zeno would have done in such a case, and you will not b…"
"We are not to be disturbed by the things that happen, but by the opinions which we have of them."
"What, then, is the fruit of these doctrines? Tranquillity, fearlessness, freedom."
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.