Epictetus — "It is a universal law — have no illusion — that every creature alive is attached…"
It is a universal law — have no illusion — that every creature alive is attached to nothing so much as to its own self-interest.
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More from Epictetus
"Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Live free and flourish."
"When you are about to say anything, first examine what you are going to say, and then speak."
"Remember that if you are doing something for your own good, you must not be ashamed of it, even if the mob is going to misinterpret it."
"As a mark is not set up for the purpose of missing the aim, so neither does the nature of evil exist in the universe."
"If you want to live a life free from trouble, you must train your mind to be indifferent to external things."
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.