The Discourses of Epictetus

Epictetus was born a slave in Phrygia, went lame young, and ended up teaching philosophy at Nicopolis to well-born Romans. He wrote nothing down. What survives was recorded by his student Arrian, which is why these pages read like a teacher actually talking: blunt, often funny, impatient with students who wanted clever arguments instead of a changed life. The whole of it turns on one division. Some things are up to us, meaning our judgments and our choices, and everything else, including the body, reputation, and property, is not. Peace comes from knowing which is which. The Encheiridion boils the same teaching down to a short handbook, and that handbook is how most readers have met him ever since. Free to read in PDF and EPUB.