Epictetus, Discourses 1.19.3

“But I can behead you.”

 

Well said. I forgot, of course, one ought to pay you worship as if you were fever or cholera, and raise an altar to you, like the altar to Fever in Rome.

 

What is it then which disturbs and confounds the multitude? Is it the tyrant and his guards? 

 

No, God forbid! It is impossible for that which is free by nature to be disturbed or hindered by anything but itself. 

 

It is a man's own judgements which disturb him. For when the tyrant says to a man, “I will chain your leg,” he that values his leg says, “No, have mercy,” but he that values his will says, “If it seems more profitable to you, chain it.” 

—from Epictetus, Discourses 1.19 

 

Yes, another Epictetian favorite! While most people I know tend not to worry about being beheaded, their own versions of failure and extinction seem just as ghastly to them. 

 

Some fear losing their property, their prestige, or their pleasures, and if they have foolishly decided that these are the conditions to determine their lives, they are quite right to be worried. However great our efforts, these are not for us to control; even where there is a concurrence of action and circumstances, the circumstances will unfold on their own terms. 

 

Those beholden to Fortune cannot help but be in constant anxiety, for their happiness is always precarious. They are the ones who bow to the tyrant, eager in expectation of rewards and nervous about the possibility of punishments. 

 

Others fear only losing their principles, and if they have looked deeply within themselves, they are acutely aware of how they must maintain them at all costs. Yet here there need be no uncertainty about the circumstances, for a life of conscience is a life of self-reliance; the only way to lose our sense of meaning and value is to freely abandon it. 

 

Those who serve Nature possess an indomitable wellspring of peace, for their happiness is from their own judgments. They are the ones who, much to everyone else’s amazement, can shrug, or even laugh, at the tyrant, because he has nothing they require. 

 

There is the man who says, “I take what I want!” Then there is the man who says, “I make the best use of whatever I have.” The contrast is evident in all aspects of our experience, and the attitude we take is what will make or break us. 

 

It is within our rights to prefer certain conditions over others, and to act for them when it is in harmony with virtue, though we should recognize how there is nothing constant in them—it is our own constancy that gives us strength. 

 

Take the leg, or even the head, if you wish, but I will not permit you to take anything of my integrity. We have parted ways on where we find the profit. My victory is already won, and yours will continue to elude you. 

—Reflection written in 2/2001

IMAGE: Abraham Janssens, Emperor Nero (c. 1618)