Everything I know about Epictetus I've developed myself over the years. It's been a one-on-one relationship.
He's been in combat with me, leg irons with me, spent month-long stretches in blindfolds with me, has been in the ropes with me, has taught me that my true business is maintaining control over my moral purpose, in fact that my moral purpose is who I am.
He taught me that I am totally responsible for everything I do and say; and that it is I who decides on and controls my own destruction and own deliverance.
Not even God will intercede if He sees me throwing my life away. He wants me to be autonomous. He put me in charge of me.
"It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishment the scroll. I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul."
—from James B. Stockdale, The Stoic Warrior's Triad
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