Epictetus on what we should be focusing on

“‘But I would have that which seems best to me happen in every case, no matter how it comes to seem so.’

You are mad; you are beside yourself. Do you not know that freedom is a noble and precious thing? But for me to desire at haphazard that those things should happen which have at haphazard seemed best to me, is dangerously near being, not merely not noble, but even in the highest degree shameful.

For how do we act in writing? Do I desire to write the name ‘Dio’ as I choose? No, but I am taught to desire to write it as it ought to be written. What do we do in music? The same. And what in general, where there is any art or science? The same; otherwise knowledge of anything would be useless, if it were accommodated to every individual’s whims.”

(Discourses, 1.12)

Figs in Winter: Stoicism and Beyond is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Get full access to Figs in Winter: a Community of Reason at figsinwintertime.substack.com/subscribe