Epictetus — "Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly."
Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.
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More from Epictetus
"If someone is able to make you angry, then he is your master."
"It is not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters."
"If a man has a bad character, he is bad for himself; if he has a good character, he is good for himself."
"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 …"
"The price of apathy is to be ruled by evil men."
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.