Epictetus, The Handbook 32: Living by Full Measures

. . . Man, consider first what it is you are undertaking; then look at your own powers and see if you can bear it.

Do you want to compete in the pentathlon or in wrestling? Look to your arms, your thighs, see what your loins are like. For different men are born for different tasks. Do you suppose that if you do this you can live as you do now—eat and drink as you do now, indulge desire and discontent just as before?

No, you must sit up late, work hard, abandon your own people, be looked down on by a mere slave, be ridiculed by those who meet you, get the worst of it in everything—in honor, in office, in justice, in every possible thing.

This is what you have to consider: whether you are willing to pay this price for peace of mind, freedom, tranquility. If not, do not come near; do not be, like the children, first a philosopher, then a tax collector, then an orator, then one of Caesar's procurators.

These callings do not agree. You must be one man, good or bad; you must develop either your Governing Principle, or your outward endowments; you must study either your inner man, or outward things—in a word, you must choose between the position of a philosopher and that of a mere outsider.

—Epictetus, The Handbook, Chapter 29 (tr Matheson)

A good life will require action and effort. It only remains for us to decide what we consider good, and whether we think it worth the effort.

I have seen many of those philosophy majors over the years making their way in worldly success. As much as they might like to say so in their bios and resumes, there is absolutely no way that was the reason they made their way in the world.

Do not tell me you learned critical thinking to make yourself important. Do not tell me you learned to open your mind to make a financial profit. These things are in contradiction.

Study the inner man, or sell yourself to the things outside of you. There is absolutely no in-between.

“But I am rich, and also a good person.”

Perhaps you are, but your wealth and power will never make you a good person. It’s entirely an accident.

“But I am rich, and I help the community.”

Perhaps you do, but your wealth and power have nothing to do with the measure of your character.

“But I am rich, and if you’d only worked as hard as me, you’d be the same.”

Now there’s the rub. This is what they really mean. They already know what they want, and they already have their reward. Most of them earned their status on the coattails of others, but that is neither here nor there. The life they love is one of show. We all acquire the wealth we work for, but all that matters is what we think makes us truly rich, whether in body or in soul.

Consider what it means to have a life worth living. Will it be the trumpets and parades that come with fame and fortune? Or will it simply be the tranquility from just having acted with wisdom, temperance, fortitude, and justice?

You will have forgive the foul tongue of an Irish philosopher, but I can’t be half-assed about the truth. My actions will tell me exactly what I really care about, and there are no half measures, only full measures.

As soon as I think it fine to love truth but practice lies, I am no longer prudent.

As soon as I think it fine to praise modesty but practice lust, I am no longer temperate.

As soon as I think it fine to send others into the struggle, but hide behind my own position and ideology, I am no longer brave.

As soon as I think it fine to speak of fairness, but I screw my friends and neighbors, I am no longer just.

I must be one man, not two. I must either be a philosopher, in the true sense, or a man ruled by what is outside of me.

I cannot both be a philosopher and a tax collector.

Written in 6/2007

Image: Marinus van Reymerswaele, The Tax Collector (1542)