Epictetus · c. 50 – c. 135 CE
Discourses 1.28 ¶5 — Epictetus
From “That We Ought Not to Be Angry with Men; and What Are the Small and the Great Things Among Men”
Translation by George Long (1877)
Epictetus, Discourses 1.28 ¶5
When then women are carried off, when children are made captives, and when the men are killed, are these not evils? How is it then that you add to the facts these opinions? Explain this to me also.—I shall not do that; but how is it that you say that these are not evils?—Let us come to the rules: produce the precognitions (προλήψεις): for it is because this is neglected that we cannot sufficiently wonder at what men do. When we intend to judge of weights, we do not judge by guess: where we intend to judge of straight and crooked, we do not judge by guess. In all cases where it is our interest to know what is true in any matter, never will any man among us do anything by guess. But in things which depend on the first and on the only cause of doing right or wrong, of happiness or unhappiness, of being unfortunate or fortunate, there only we are inconsiderate and rash. There is then nothing like scales (balance), nothing like a rule: but some appearance is presented, and straightway I act according to it. Must I then suppose that I am superior to Achilles or Agamemnon, so that they by following appearances do and suffer so many evils: and shall not the appearance be sufficient for me?—And what tragedy has any other beginning? The Atreus of Euripides, what is it? An appearance. The Oedipus of Sophocles, what is it? An appearance. The Phoenix? An appearance. The Hippolytus? An appearance. What kind of a man then do you suppose him to be who pays no regard to this matter? And what is the name of those who follow every appearance? They are called madmen. Do we then act at all differently?
Cite this passage
Epictetus, Discourses 1.28 ¶5, tr. George Long (1877)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/discourses/1.28.5
Epictetus, Discourses (as recorded by Arrian), tr. George Long (1877). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesWe would never guess when weighing goods or checking whether a line is straight, yet in the matters that decide happiness we act on the first impression that appears. Whole tragedies begin with a single unexamined impression, and someone who follows every one of them is, in effect, mad, so we need a reliable rule for testing them.
Older wording
- “προλήψεις”
- — natural, shared basic ideas
- “inconsiderate”
- — thoughtless, not weighing things up
- “appearance”
- — an impression, the way a thing strikes your mind
Themes and situations
- Judgements and impressions
- Emotions and the passions
- Learning and progress
- Self-discipline and habit
- A hard decision
Quote cards
The opening line of this passage as an image, with its citation — for sharing or keeping.