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 you are praised, consider yourself a donkey. If you are blamed, consider yourself a donkey."
"If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, 'He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone…"
"If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself; if it be a lie, laugh at it."
"A man's master is he who has power over what the man wishes or does not wish, to secure or to take away."
"If you want to be a man of leisure, don't be a slave to your desires."
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.