All the Works of Epictetus · 23 of 100

Book I, Chapter 21

1.When a Person maintains his proper Station in Life, he doth not gape after Externals. What would you have, Man?

“I am contented, if my Desires and Aversions are conformable to Nature: if I manage my Powers of Pursuit and Avoidance, my Purposes, and Intentions and Assent, in the manner I was formed to do.”

Why, then, do you walk as if you had swallowed a Spit?

“I could wish moreover to have all who meet me, admire me, and all who follow me, cry out, What a great Philosopher!”

Who are those, by whom you would be admired? Are they not the very People, who, you used to say, were mad? What, then, would you be admired by Madmen?