Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but
by the opinions about the things: for example, death is
nothing terrible, for if it were, it would have seemed so
to Socrates; for the opinion about death, that it is
terrible, is the terrible thing. When then we are impeded
or disturbed or grieved, let us never blame others, but
ourselves, that is, our opinions. It is the act of an ill-
instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition;
it is the act of one who has begun to be instructed, to lay
the blame on himself; and of one whose instruction is
completed, neither to blame another, nor himself.
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The Discourses of Epictetus, with the Encheridion and Fragments. Epictetus. George Long. translator. London. George Bell and Sons. 1890.
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