Picture a teacher in a small seaside town in northwest Greece. He walks with a limp. Young people from across the Roman world sail in to sit on his benches and hear him talk about freedom.
He knew that word from the inside. He spent his early years enslaved in the household of a powerful man in Rome, and he grew up to teach that the freest place a person can live is inside their own choices.
It is Monday, a fresh week, and he is the perfect friend for it.
This is part of Timeless Authors, our daily series on the writers who change ordinary days. Yesterday E. E. Cummings reminded us that feeling is first. Today Epictetus shows us how to choose what we do with every feeling.
Epictetus (about 55 to about 135 CE)
Greek Stoic teacher, born enslaved, who made freedom a daily practice.
The Teaching of Epictetus
Epictetus taught that the one thing truly ours is the way we use our own mind, our judgments, choices and desires. Everything else belongs to the wider world. Peace comes from giving our full care to the first and meeting the second with grace.
We must make the best use that we can of the things which are in our power, and use the rest according to their nature.
Epictetus, Discourses, Book 1, Chapter 1, translated by George Long
Picture your day as two baskets. One holds your effort, your attitude and your next choice. The other holds the weather, the traffic and other people’s moods. Epictetus invites us to pour our best energy into the first basket and hold the second with open hands.
In Their Own Words, Favorite and Lesser Known Quotes
Every quote below comes from George Long’s 1877 translation of the Discourses, the Encheiridion (or Manual) and the Fragments, free to read on Wikisource.
On Choosing Who You Are
Immediately prescribe some character and some form to yourself, which you shall observe both when you are alone and when you meet with men.
Epictetus, Encheiridion, XXXIII, translated by George Long
Immediately then think it right to live as a full-grown man, and one who is making proficiency.
Epictetus, Encheiridion, LI, translated by George Long
Before the week sweeps you along, decide on the character you want to bring to it. Steady, kind, brave, curious. Then let that picture guide you in private and in company alike.
On Habit and Small Beginnings
Every habit and faculty is maintained and increased by the corresponding actions: the habit of walking by walking, the habit of running by running. If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.
Epictetus, Discourses, Book 2, Chapter 18, translated by George Long
Begin then from little things.
Epictetus, Encheiridion, XII, translated by George Long
We become what we repeat. A page read, a walk taken, a kind word said, each one strengthens the person you are becoming.
On Gratitude for Plain Gifts
Great is God, who has given us such implements with which we shall cultivate the earth: great is God who has given us hands, the power of swallowing, a stomach, imperceptible growth, and the power of breathing while we sleep.
Epictetus, Discourses, Book 1, Chapter 16, translated by George Long
Epictetus found reasons for praise in the simplest gifts, hands to work with and breath that keeps going while we sleep. Gratitude for the body is a lovely way to begin a Monday.
On Speaking Well of Others
If you wish to be well spoken of, learn to speak well (of others) and when you have learned to speak well of them, try to act well, and so you will reap the fruit of being well spoken of.
Epictetus, Fragments, VII, translated by George Long
A good name grows from good habits of speech. Speak well of others, act well, and the harvest arrives in its season.
On a Calm and Generous Soul
A soul which is conversant with virtue is like an ever flowing source, for it is pure and tranquil and potable and sweet and communicative (social), and rich and harmless and free from mischief.
Epictetus, Fragments, II, translated by George Long
I love this image. A soul tended with care becomes a spring that refreshes everyone who comes near it.
Who Was Epictetus?
Epictetus was born sometime in the 50s CE in Hierapolis, a Greek city of Asia Minor in what is now southwestern Turkey. As a young man he lived enslaved in Rome, in the household of Epaphroditus, an important administrator at the court of Nero.
During those years he studied with Musonius Rufus, a Roman senator and Stoic philosopher, and he later gained his freedom. He walked with a limp for much of his life. When the emperor Domitian banned philosophers from Italy in 89, Epictetus moved to Nicopolis in Epirus, on the northwest coast of Greece, and opened his own school.
He taught there until his death around 135. His student Arrian of Nicomedia recorded his lectures as the Discourses, of which four books survive, and gathered the essentials into the short Encheiridion, or Handbook. Years later Marcus Aurelius thanked his teacher Rusticus for sharing the memoirs of Epictetus with him.
My main source is the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on Epictetus, a wonderful place for a deeper look.
What Making the Best Use Really Means
George Long often translates the Greek word prohairesis as the will. It is the part of us that decides what things mean and how we respond. Making the best use of it is a craft, practiced one choice at a time.
So instead of asking, why is this happening to me, try asking, what is the best use I can make of this?
Marcus Aurelius learned this from Epictetus and turned it into his own quiet practice of looking within. For the science side of the same idea, read what the Stoics knew about happiness.
Why This Teaching Fits Today
Mondays arrive with a full inbox and a long list. Epictetus gives us a calm way in. Sort the week into what is yours and what belongs to the world, then pour your energy into the first.
Late October helps too. The leaves let go on their own schedule while the trees keep their roots. We can do the same, holding our choices close and letting the rest fall where it will.
Your Morning Practice, the Two Baskets Check
This takes about ten minutes.
- Name your character. Write three words for the person you want to be this week.
- Fill the two baskets. List what today holds, then sort each item into your basket of effort, words and choices or the world’s basket for everything else.
- Begin small. Choose one little thing from your own basket and do it before breakfast.
- Give thanks. Thank life for three plain gifts, your hands, your breath and this morning.
- Speak well. Say one generous word about someone today, out loud or in a message.
Make it stick with an if then plan. If I feel tense about something today, then I will pause and ask which basket it belongs to.
Essential Reading
- The Discourses of Epictetus, translated by George Long and free on Wikisource. Begin with Book 1, Chapter 1.
- The Encheiridion or Manual, the short handbook of his teaching and a perfect morning read.
- The Fragments, brief sayings preserved by later writers.
- Meditations by Marcus Aurelius, the emperor who treasured the words of Epictetus.
Quick Answers About Epictetus
Who was Epictetus?
Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher who lived from about 55 to about 135 CE. Born in Hierapolis and enslaved in Rome, he gained his freedom and later taught at his own school in Nicopolis, Greece.
What is the main teaching of Epictetus?
His central idea is that some things are within our power, our judgments, choices and desires, and the rest belong to the wider world. He taught that a calm and free life comes from making the best use of what is ours.
Who recorded the teachings of Epictetus?
His student Arrian of Nicomedia recorded his lectures as the Discourses and gathered the essentials into the Encheiridion, or Handbook. Four books of the Discourses survive today.
What is the best Epictetus book for beginners?
The Encheiridion is the ideal start. It is short, practical and free to read in George Long’s translation on Wikisource.
What is a famous Epictetus quote about habit?
In the Discourses he says, If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write. Every habit grows stronger through the actions that match it.
Back to the Little School by the Sea
Picture those students on the benches in Nicopolis, salt in the air, listening to a man who had known chains and chose freedom every single day.
He would want you to carry one line into this Monday.
We must make the best use that we can of the things which are in our power, and use the rest according to their nature.
Epictetus, Discourses, Book 1, Chapter 1, translated by George Long
What is one thing in your own basket today that deserves your very best use?
Start early. Start choosing. Start today.
Complement this with E. E. Cummings on Feeling and Wonder, Emerson on Self-Reliance and What the Stoics Knew About Happiness.
Want a calm, intentional start every day? Hold Until Sunrise is our little app for mornings that matter.
For a little goodness in your inbox every Sunday, join us here.
With love, Paolo
Sources
- Epictetus, The Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion and Fragments, translated by George Long (1877), Wikisource
- Discourses, Book 1, Chapter 1
- Discourses, Book 1, Chapter 16
- Discourses, Book 2, Chapter 18
- The Encheiridion or Manual
- Fragments
- Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Epictetus
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Carry this into tomorrow morning
The practice in this post lives in an app we built, Hold Until Sunrise. Your alarm becomes a moment of stillness. You hold your phone, rest with one affirmation, and let the sunrise welcome you into the day. Begin tomorrow gently and on your own terms. Find it on the App Store here.