Epictetus — "It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which determines how we…"
It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which determines how we will act.
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More from Epictetus
"The price of apathy is to be at the mercy of those who are not."
"The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it."
"Circumstances do not rise to meet our expectations. Events happen as they do. People behave as they are. Embrace what you actually get."
"If you are struck by the appearance of any promised pleasure, guard yourself against being carried away by it; but let this thought wait for you, 'How long will it last, and then how much remorse and …"
"Freedom isn't secured by filling up on your heart's desire but by removing your desire."
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.