Discourses 2.17 ¶7 — Epictetus

Epictetus, Discourses 2.17 ¶7

No: “but I wish to understand what Chrysippus says in his treatise of the Pseudomenos (the Liar).” Will you not hang yourself, wretch, with such your intention? And what good will it do you? You will read the whole with sorrow, and you will speak to others trembling. Thus you also do. “Do you wish me, brother, to read to you, and you to me?”—You write excellently, my man; and you also excellently in the style of Xenophon, and you in the style of Plato, and you in the style of Antisthenes. Then having told your dreams to one another you return to the same things: your desires are the same, your aversions the same, your pursuits are the same, and your designs and purposes, you wish for the same things and work for the same. In the next place you do not even seek for one to give you advice, but you are vexed if you hear such things (as I say). Then you say, “An ill-natured old fellow: when I was going away, he did not weep nor did he say, ‘Into what danger you are going: if you come off safe, my child, I will burn lights.’ This is what a good natured man would do.” It will be a great thing for you if you do return safe, and it will be worthwhile to burn lights for such a person: for you ought to be immortal and exempt from disease.