Chapter III Concerning such as recommend persons to the philosophers Diogenes rightly answered one who desired letters of recommendation from him: “At first sight he will know you to be a man; and whether you are a good or a bad man, if he has any skill in distinguishing, he will know likewise; and, if he has not, he will

Chapter IV Concerning a man who had been guilty of adultery. Just as he was once saying, that man is made for fidelity, and that whoever subverts this, subverts the peculiar property of man; there entered one of the so-called literary men, who had been found guilty of adultery, in that city. — But, continued Epictetus , if, laying aside

Chapter V How nobleness of mind mat be consistent with prudence. The materials of action are variable, but the use we make, of them should be constant. How, then, shall one combine composure and tranquillity with energy; doing nothing rashly, nothing carelessly? By imitating those who play at games! The dice are variable; the pieces are variable. How do I

Chapter VI Of Circumstances. A Process of reasoning may be an indifferent thing; but our judgment concerning it is not indifferent; for it is either knowledge, or opinion, or mistake. So the events of life occur indifferently, but the use of it is not indifferent. When you are told, therefore, that these things are indifferent, do not, on that account,

Chapter VII Of Divination. From an unseasonable regard to divination, we omit many duties: for what can the diviner contemplate besides death, danger, sickness, and such matters. When it is necessary, then, to expose one’s self to danger for a friend, or even a duty to die for him, what occasion have I for divination? Have not I a diviner

Chapter VIII Wherein consists the essence of good. God is beneficial. Good is also beneficial. It should seem then, that where the essence of God is, there too is the essence of good. What then is the essence of God? Flesh? By no means. An estate? Fame? By no means. Intelligence? Knowledge? Right reason? Certainly! Here, then, without more ado,

Chapter IX That some persons, failing to fulfil what the character of a man implies, assume that of a philosopher. IT were no slight attainment, could we merely fulfil what the nature of man implies. For what is man? A rational and mortal being! Well, from what are we distinguished by reason? From wild beasts! From what else?! From sheep,

Chapter X How we may infer the duties of life from its nominal functions. Consider who you are. In the first place, a man; that is, one who recognizes nothing superior to the faculty of free will, but all things as subject to this; and this itself as not to be enslaved or subjected to anything. Consider then, from what

Chapter XI The beginning of philosophy. The beginning of philosophy, at least to such as enter upon it in a proper way, and by the door, is a consciousness of our own weakness and inability in necessary things. For we came into the world without any natural idea of a right-angled triangle; of a diesis, or a semitone, in music;