No man is free who is not master of himself.
Epictetus (c. 50–135) was born a slave in Phrygia and spent part of his life enslaved in Rome before being freed and founding his own school of philosophy. He wrote nothing down; what survives was recorded by his student Arrian. His teaching reduces to one distinction — between what is in our power and what is not.
About this theme: Philosophy
Philosophy always sits awkwardly in a collection of quotations: systems do not compress into a sentence, and that is exactly what is asked of them. Kant's ethics or Nietzsche's critique of morality do not fit into a single line without loss. What survives is the phrasing — often brilliant, but lifted out of the context that gave it weight.
More by Epictetus
- It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
- Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
- First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
- He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
- Only the educated are free.
More on Philosophy
- The unexamined life is not worth living.— Socrates
- Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.— Baruch Spinoza
- The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.— Michel de Montaigne
- A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
- All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.— Blaise Pascal