Epictetus — "If you wish to improve, be content to appear foolish or stupid."
If you wish to improve, be content to appear foolish or stupid.
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More from Epictetus
"If a man has seen a snake, and has not been bitten, but has been frightened, he is not on that account the less afraid, although he may say, 'I am not afraid.'"
"Don't seek to have things happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you."
"What, then, is the fruit of these doctrines? It is the same as that of a vine: leaves, then a blossom, then a ripe cluster. So here, first an appearance, then an impulse, then an act. And the fruit is…"
"Every difficulty in life is a chance for us to turn inward and to discover the resources we possess to deal with that difficulty. The resources are not without, but within."
"If you have assumed a character beyond your strength, you have both played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is within your powers."
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.