Epictetus Quotes on Knowledge
Epictetus's Discourses and Enchiridion organize Stoic practice around a single epistemological discipline: the careful distinction between what is up to us (judgments, desires, aversions, impulses) and what is not (the body, possessions, reputation, the actions of others). Genuine knowledge for Epictetus is therefore practical self-knowledge — recognition of the limits of one's own agency and the consequent freedom of the rational will. The framework descends from Stoic logic and physics but is delivered in the diatribe style Epictetus learned from his teacher Musonius Rufus.
Quotes
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“Only the educated are free.”
οὐ γὰρ τοῖς πολλοῖς περὶ τούτων πιστευτέον, οἳ λέγουσιν μόνοις ἐξεῖναι παιδεύεσθαι τοῖς ἐλευθέροις, ἀλλὰ τοῖς φιλοσόφοις μᾶλλον, οἳ λέγουσιν μόνους τοὺς παιδευθέντας ἐλευθέρους εἶναι. -
Attributed to Epictetus:
“If you wish to be a writer, write.”
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“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
Τί πρῶτόν ἐστιν ἔργον τοῦ φιλοσοφοῦντος; ἀποβαλεῖν οἴησιν· ἀμήχανον γάρ, ἅ τις εἰδέναι οἴεται, ταῦτα ἄρξασθαι μανθανειν. -
“Τῷ λογικῷ ζώῳ μόνον ἀφόρητόν ἐστι τὸ ἄλογον, τὸ δ᾿ εὔλογον φορητόν.”
To the rational being only the irrational is unendurable, but the rational is endurable. | Variant translation: To a reasonable creature, that alone is insupportable which is unreasonable; but everything reasonable may be supported. | I.2.1 -
“To the rational being only the irrational is unendurable, but the rational is endurable.”
Τῷ λογικῷ ζώῳ μόνον ἀφόρητόν ἐστι τὸ ἄλογον, τὸ δ᾿ εὔλογον φορητόν. -
“Variant translation: To a reasonable creature, that alone is insupportable which is unreasonable; but everything reasonable may be supported.”
Τῷ λογικῷ ζώῳ μόνον ἀφόρητόν ἐστι τὸ ἄλογον, τὸ δ᾿ εὔλογον φορητόν. -
“Τὸ δ᾿ ἀπάγξασθαι οὐκ ἔστιν ἀφόρητον; — Ὅταν γοῦν πάθῃ τις ὅτι εὔλογον, ἀπελθὼν ἀπήγξατο.”
But to be hanged—is that not unendurable?" Even so, when a man feels that it is reasonable, he goes off and hangs himself. | I.2.3 -
“But to be hanged—is that not unendurable?" Even so, when a man feels that it is reasonable, he goes off and hangs himself.”
Τὸ δ᾿ ἀπάγξασθαι οὐκ ἔστιν ἀφόρητον; — Ὅταν γοῦν πάθῃ τις ὅτι εὔλογον, ἀπελθὼν ἀπήγξατο. -
“καίτοι ὅ γε θεὸς οὐ μόνον ἔδωκεν ἡμῖν τὰς δυνάμεις ταύτας, καθ᾿ ἃς οἴσομεν πᾶν τὸ ἀποβαῖνον μὴ ταπεινούμενοι μηδὲ συγκλώμενοι ὑπ᾿ αὐτοῦ, ἀλλ᾿ ὃ ἦν ἀγαθοῦ βασιλέως καὶ ταῖς ἀληθείαις πατρός, ἀκώλυτον τοῦτο ἔδωκεν, ἀνανάγκαστον, ἀπαραπόδιστον, ὅλον αὐτὸ ἐφ᾿ ἡμῖν ἐποίησεν.”
Yet God hath not only granted these faculties, by which we may bear every event without being depressed or broken by it, but like a good prince and a true father, hath placed their exercise above restraint, compulsion, or hindrance, and wholly within our own control. | I.6.40 -
“καὶ ἁπλῶς οὔτε θάνατος οὔτε φυγὴ οὔτε πόνος οὔτε ἄλλο τι τῶν τοιούτων αἴτιόν ἐστι τοῦ πράττειν τι ἢ μὴ πράττειν ἡμᾶς, ἀλλ᾿ ὑπολήψεις καὶ δόγματα.”
In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles. | I.11.33 -
“λόγου γὰρ μέγεθος οὐ μήκει οὐδ᾿ ὕψει κρίνεται, ἀλλὰ δόγμασιν.”
Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle. | I.12.26