Discourses 1.20 ¶2 — Epictetus

Epictetus, Discourses 1.20 ¶2

When then you would know how careless you are with respect to good and evil, and how active with respect to things which are indifferent (neither good nor evil), observe how you feel with respect to being deprived of the sight of the eyes, and how with respect to being deceived, and you will discover that you are far from feeling as you ought to do in relation to good and evil. But this is a matter which requires much preparation, and much labor and study. Well then do you expect to acquire the greatest of arts with small labor? And yet the chief doctrine of philosophers is very brief. If you would know, read Zeno’s writings and you will see. For how few words it requires to say that man’s end (or object) is to follow the gods, and that the nature of good is a proper use of appearances. But if you say “What is God, what is appearance, and what is particular and what is universal nature?” then indeed many words are necessary. If then Epicurus should come and say that the good must be in the body; in this case also many words become necessary, and we must be taught what is the leading principle in us, and the fundamental and the substantial; and as it is not probable that the good of a snail is in the shell, is it probable that the good of a man is in the body? But you yourself, Epicurus, possess something better than this. What is that in you which deliberates, what is that which examines everything, what is that which forms a judgment about the body itself, that it is the principal part? and why do you light your lamp and labor for us, and write so many books? is it that we may not be ignorant of the truth, who we are, and what we are with respect to you? Thus the discussion requires many words.