Epictetus — "The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots ga…"
The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
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More from Epictetus
"The greater part of what we say and do is unnecessary, and if a man would cut it out, he would have more leisure and less disturbance."
"We are not to be like sheep, who, when they have filled themselves, stand and gaze, and bring nothing home but their pasture; but we should rather be like bees, which both fly and collect, and bring h…"
"He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has."
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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.