The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, with the Hymn of Cleanthes

The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, with the Hymn of Cleanthes, is a collection of sayings translated and arranged by Hastings Crossley. The sayings are numbered in Roman numerals, and the numbering runs to at least CLXXXIX.

Saying IX says that God is the Father of men as well as of gods, and that anyone fully convinced of this would never think anything ignoble or base of himself. It sets that thought beside the intolerable haughty looks you would wear if Caesar adopted you. Saying XCIII addresses a man sailing to Rome to obtain the post of Governor of Cnossus and asks when he ever made a voyage to review his own principles. In one passage a speaker says he wants to be the purple, the small shining part that makes the rest seem fair, and not one thread among many. Later sayings hold that there is no Hades and that all things are full of beings spiritual and divine, and ask what a man would wish to be found doing when Death overtakes him.