Epictetus · c. 50 – c. 135 CE
Discourses 3.26 ¶1 — Epictetus
From “To Those Who Fear Want”
Translation by George Long (1877)
Epictetus, Discourses 3.26 ¶1
Are you not ashamed at being more cowardly and more mean than fugitive slaves? How do they when they run away leave their masters? on what estates do they depend, and what domestics do they rely on? Do they not after stealing a little which is enough for the first days, then afterwards move on through land or through sea, contriving one method after another for maintaining their lives? And what fugitive slave ever died of hunger? But you are afraid lest necessary things should fail you, and are sleepless by night. Wretch, are you so blind, and don’t you see the road to which the want of necessaries leads?—“Well, where does it lead?”—To the same place to which a fever leads, or a stone that falls on you: to death. Have you not often said this yourself to your companions? have you not read much of this kind, and written much? and how often have you boasted that you were easy as to death?
Cite this passage
Epictetus, Discourses 3.26 ¶1, tr. George Long (1877)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/discourses/3.26.1
Epictetus, Discourses (as recorded by Arrian), tr. George Long (1877). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesIf you lie awake afraid of running short of necessities, remember that even runaway slaves manage to survive by improvising, and that the worst want can lead to is the same place a fever or a falling stone leads: death, which you claim not to fear. Fear of poverty is out of proportion to the danger.
Older wording
- “necessaries”
- — basic necessities of life
- “domestics”
- — household servants
Themes and situations
- Fear and anxiety
- Courage
- Wealth and poverty
- Death and mortality
- Resilience and endurance
- Losing money
- Anxiety about the future
- Losing a job
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