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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow CHAPTER XXX.: WEAPONS READY FOR DIFFICULT OCCASIONS. - The Works of Epictetus. Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, The Enchiridion, and Fragments

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Subject Area: Philosophy

CHAPTER XXX.: WEAPONS READY FOR DIFFICULT OCCASIONS. - Epictetus, The Works of Epictetus. Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, The Enchiridion, and Fragments [100 AD]

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The Works of Epictetus. Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, The Enchiridion, and Fragments. A Translation from the Greek based on that of Elizabeth Carter, by Thomas Wentworth Higginson (Boston: Little, Brown, and Co., 1865).

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CHAPTER XXX.

WEAPONS READY FOR DIFFICULT OCCASIONS.

WHEN you are going before any of the great, remember, that there is another, who sees from above, what passes, and whom you ought to please, rather than man. He, therefore, asks you:

“In the schools, what did you use to call exile, and prison, and chains, and death, and calumny?”

I? Indifferent things.

“What, then, do you call them now? Are they at all changed?”

No.

“Are you changed, then?”

No.

“Tell me, then, what things are indifferent.”

Things not dependent on our own will.

“What is the inference?”

Things not dependent on my own will are nothing to me.

“Tell me, likewise, what appeared to be the good of man.”

Rectitude of will, and to understand the appearances of things.

“What his end?”

To follow Thee.

“Do you say the same things now, too?”

Yes. I do say the same things, even now.

Well, go in then boldly, and mindful of these things; and you will show the difference between the instructed and the ignorant. I protest, I think you will then have such thoughts as these: “Why do we provide so many and great resources for nothing? Is the power, the antechamber, the attendants, the guards, no more than this? Is it for these, that I have listened to so many dissertations? These are nothing; and yet I had qualified myself as for some great encounter.”

BOOK II.