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Of the desire of admiration.

When one maintains his proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals. What would you have, O man?

" I am contented, if my desires and aversions are conformable to nature; if I seek and shun that which I ought, and thus regulate my purposes, my efforts, and my opinions."

Why, then, do you walk as if you had swallowed a spit?

"Because I could wish moreover to have all who meet me admire me, and all who follow me cry out, What a great philosopher! "

Who are those by whom you would be admired? Are they not the very people who you used to say were mad? What, then, would you be admired by madmen?


The Works of Epictetus: His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments. Epictetus. Thomas Wentworth Higginson. translator. New York. Thomas Nelson and Sons. 1890.

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