Short passages from the talks of a Greek teacher on how to stay free and calm whatever happens. Born a slave, Epictetus taught that chains can hold the body but never the will.
88 pages 1h 43m reading time
The core sayings of Epictetus, one of the great Stoic teachers.
Urges focusing only on what is in your control, your own judgments and choices, and accepting the rest calmly.
Holds that freedom is inner, so a person who masters their own mind is free even if enslaved, as Epictetus once was.
His teaching shaped Marcus Aurelius's Meditations.
Centuries later, his ideas helped inspire cognitive behavioral therapy.
Never written by Epictetus
He wrote nothing himself, so these sayings come from notes his student Arrian took while listening to him teach.
Notes shared without permission
Arrian said he wrote the notes only for himself, and they spread to other readers without his knowledge.
Recorded in Nicopolis
Arrian heard these talks at Epictetus's school in Nicopolis, in northwestern Greece.
Half the talks lost
Arrian's notes once filled eight books, but only four survived, so this selection draws on just half.
Epictetus c. 108 CE