Epictetus — "Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecti…"
Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power.
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More from Epictetus
"If you wish to be good, first believe that you are bad."
"He who is not a good servant will not be a good master."
"If you want to be a man of leisure, do not be a man of business. For if you are a man of business, you must be a man of trouble."
"What is the result of all this? To be free, serene, and happy."
"Consider at what price you sell your integrity; but do not sell it for a small price."
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.