Epictetus · c. 50 – c. 135 CE
Enchiridion 53 — Epictetus
Translation by George Long (1877)
Epictetus, Enchiridion 53
In everything (circumstance) we should hold these maxims ready to hand: Lead me, O Zeus, and thou O Destiny, The way that I am bid by you to go: To follow I am ready. If I choose not, I make myself a wretch, and still must follow. But whoso nobly yields unto necessity, We hold him wise, and skill’d in things divine. And the third also: O Crito, if so it pleases the Gods, so let it be; Anytus and Melitus are able indeed to kill me, but they cannot harm me.
Cite this passage
Epictetus, Enchiridion 53, tr. George Long (1877)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/enchiridion/53
Epictetus, Enchiridion and Fragments, tr. George Long (1877). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesKeep three sayings ready for any situation: be willing to follow wherever fate leads, since resisting only makes you wretched while you must follow anyway; whoever yields nobly to necessity is wise; and people who can only take your life cannot truly harm you.
Older wording
- “Destiny”
- — fate
- “Anytus and Melitus”
- — the men who accused Socrates at his trial
Themes and situations
- Acceptance and fate
- Courage
- Death and mortality
- What is in our control
- Nature and the cosmos
- Fear of death
- Being treated unfairly
- Anxiety about the future
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