If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
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: Growth
Growth is one of the few subjects the Stoics and modern psychologists agree on: a person is not a finished product. What shifts across the centuries is not the belief that we can change, but how comfortable that belief is made to sound. Ancient writers treat growth as a duty, almost severely — Seneca opens his letters by reproaching himself. Contemporary writing prefers the language of potential and possibility.
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.
- No man is free who is not master of himself.
- He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
More on Growth
- An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.— Benjamin Franklin
- The gem cannot be polished without friction, nor man perfected without trials.— Confucius
- True life is lived when tiny changes occur.— Leo Tolstoy
- Associate with people who are likely to improve you.— Seneca
- He who learns but does not think is lost. He who thinks but does not learn is in great danger.— Confucius