The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, with the Hymn of CleanthesEpictetus
Religion
The Golden Sayings of Epictetus, with the Hymn of Cleanthes
Epictetus
Philosophy; Stoics
You journey to Olympia to see the work of Phidias; and each of you
holds it a misfortune not to have beheld these things before you die.
Whereas when there is no need even to take a journey, but you are on
the spot, with the works before you, have you no care to contemplate
and study these?
Will you not then perceive either who you are or unto what end you were
born: or for what purpose the power of contemplation has been bestowed
on you?
“Well, but in life there are some things disagreeable and hard to
bear.”
And are there none at Olympia? Are you not scorched by the heat? Are
you not cramped for room? Have you not to bathe with discomfort? Are
you not drenched when it rains? Have you not to endure the clamor and
shouting and such annoyances as these? Well, I suppose you set all this
over against the splendour of the spectacle and bear it patiently. What
then? have you not received greatness of heart, received courage,
received fortitude? What care I, if I am great of heart, for aught that
can come to pass? What shall cast me down or disturb me? What shall
seem painful? Shall I not use the power to the end for which I received
it, instead of moaning and wailing over what comes to pass?
XV
If what philosophers say of the kinship of God and Man be true, what
remains for men to do but as Socrates did:—never, when asked one’s
country, to answer, “I am an Athenian or a Corinthian,” but “I am a
citizen of the world.”
XVI
He that hath grasped the administration of the World, who hath learned
that this Community, which consists of God and men, is the foremost and
mightiest and most comprehensive of all:—that from God have descended
the germs of life, not to my father only and father’s father, but to
all things that are born and grow upon the earth, and in an especial
manner to those endowed with Reason (for those only are by their nature
fitted to hold communion with God, being by means of Reason conjoined
with Him)—why should not such an one call himself a citizen of the
world? Why not a son of God? Why should he fear aught that comes to
pass among men? Shall kinship with Cæsar, or any other of the great at
Rome, be enough to hedge men around with safety and consideration,
without a thought of apprehension: while to have God for our Maker, and
Father, and Kinsman, shall not this set us free from sorrows and fears?
XVII
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