Epictetus · c. 50 – c. 135 CE
Discourses 3.13 ¶3 — Epictetus
From “What Solitude Is, and What Kind of Person a Solitary Man Is”
Translation by George Long (1877)
Epictetus, Discourses 3.13 ¶3
What kind of solitude then remains? what want? why do we make ourselves worse than children? and what do children do when they are left alone? They take up shells and ashes, and they build something, then pull it down and build something else, and so they never want the means of passing the time. Shall I then, if you sail away, sit down and weep because I have been left alone and solitary? Shall I then have no shells, no ashes? But children do what they do through want of thought (or deficiency in knowledge), and we through knowledge are unhappy.
Cite this passage
Epictetus, Discourses 3.13 ¶3, tr. George Long (1877)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/discourses/3.13.3
Epictetus, Discourses (as recorded by Arrian), tr. George Long (1877). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesChildren left alone happily build things out of shells and ashes and never run out of ways to pass the time, so a grown person should not sit weeping because a companion has sailed away. Children cope through simplicity, whereas adults with all their knowledge make themselves miserable, which is worse.
Themes and situations
- Solitude and retreat
- Peace of mind
- Learning and progress
- Loneliness
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