Epictetus · c. 50 – c. 135 CE
Discourses 3.22 ¶4 — Epictetus
From “About Cynism”
Translation by George Long (1877)
Epictetus, Discourses 3.22 ¶4
In the first place then you must make your ruling faculty pure, and this mode of life also. “Now” (you should say), “to me the matter to work on is my understanding, as wood is to the carpenter, as hides to the shoemaker; and my business is the right use of appearances. But the body is nothing to me; the parts of it are nothing to me. Death? Let it come when it chooses, either death of the whole or of a part. Fly, you say. And whither; can any man eject me out of the world? He cannot. But wherever I go, there is the sun, there is the moon, there are the stars, dreams, omens, and the conversation (ὁμιλία) with Gods.”
Cite this passage
Epictetus, Discourses 3.22 ¶4, tr. George Long (1877)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/discourses/3.22.4
Epictetus, Discourses (as recorded by Arrian), tr. George Long (1877). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesTreat your own mind and its right use of impressions as your working material, the way wood is for a carpenter, and treat the body and its parts as not your business. Death can come when it likes, and exile cannot take anything from you, since wherever you go you still have the sky, the stars and your contact with the gods.
Older wording
- “ruling faculty”
- — your reasoning mind
- “appearances”
- — the impressions that present themselves to your mind
Themes and situations
- What is in our control
- Judgements and impressions
- Death and mortality
- Freedom
- Exile and loss of home
- Fear of death
- Moving away or exile
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