Epictetus · c. 50 – c. 135 CE
Discourses 1.9 ¶2–3 — Epictetus
From “How from the Fact That We Are Akin to God a Man May Proceed to the Consequences”
Translation by George Long (1877)
Epictetus, Discourses 1.9 ¶2–3
But a man may say, “Whence shall I get bread to eat when I have nothing?” And how do slaves and runaways—on what do they rely when they leave their masters? Do they rely on their lands or slaves, or their vessels of silver? They rely on nothing but themselves; and food does not fail them. And shall it be necessary for one among us who is a philosopher to travel into foreign parts, and trust to and rely on others, and not to take care of himself, and shall he be inferior to irrational animals and more cowardly, each of which being self-sufficient, neither fails to get its proper food, nor to find a suitable way of living, and one conformable to nature?
Cite this passage
Epictetus, Discourses 1.9 ¶2–3, tr. George Long (1877)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/discourses/1.9.2
Epictetus, Discourses (as recorded by Arrian), tr. George Long (1877). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesThe worry about where food will come from if you have nothing is answered by pointing to people who flee their owners with no land or silver and still manage, because they rely on themselves. A philosopher should be no less self-reliant than an animal, which always finds its own way of living.
Older wording
- “conformable to nature”
- — in line with how a creature is made
Themes and situations
- Resilience and endurance
- Fear and anxiety
- Wealth and poverty
- Freedom
- Losing money
- Losing a job
- Anxiety about the future
Quote cards
The opening line of this passage as an image, with its citation — for sharing or keeping.