Epictetus · c. 50 – c. 135 CE
Discourses 3.22 ¶2 — Epictetus
From “About Cynism”
Translation by George Long (1877)
Epictetus, Discourses 3.22 ¶2
Do you also think about the matter carefully: it is not what it seems to you. (You say) “I wear a cloak now and I shall wear it then; I sleep hard now, and I shall sleep hard then; I will take in addition a little bag now and a staff, and I will go about and begin to beg and to abuse those whom I meet; and if I see any man plucking the hair out of his body, I will rebuke him, or if he has dressed his hair, or if he walks about in purple.” If you imagine the thing to be such as this, keep far away from it; do not approach it; it is not at all for you. But if you imagine it to be what it is, and do not think yourself to be unfit for it, consider what a great thing you undertake.
Cite this passage
Epictetus, Discourses 3.22 ¶2, tr. George Long (1877)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/discourses/3.22.2
Epictetus, Discourses (as recorded by Arrian), tr. George Long (1877). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesAdopting the look of an austere life, with a rough cloak, a bag and a staff, and then lecturing strangers about their grooming is a shallow imitation. If that is your picture of this way of life, stay away from it, and think hard about what the real thing demands before deciding.
Older wording
- “purple”
- — expensive purple clothing, a sign of wealth and rank
Themes and situations
- Pride and humility
- Learning and progress
- Self-discipline and habit
- Virtue and character
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