Epictetus Enchiridion
Epictetus: As a mark is not set up for the sake of…
As a mark is not set up for the sake of missing the aim, so neither does the nature of evil exist in the world.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of the Enchiridion. The reading beside it is ours.
A target is not placed there so that you will miss it. In the same way, the existence of difficulty does not prove that the world is built for your defeat. Epictetus is pushing back against the feeling that obstacles are somehow evidence of a hostile universe. Problems have causes, consequences, and sometimes terrible costs, but they are not automatically messages that you are doomed or cursed. A missed goal can still teach you how to aim better. A painful event can reveal help you need, values you forgot, or strength you had not used. This is not a promise that everything happens for a comforting reason. It is a refusal to add hopelessness to hardship. When you fall short today, resist the urge to turn one miss into a theory about your whole life. Adjust, learn, and take the next shot with a clearer hand.
Related passages
- Epictetus Two things must be removed: proud certainty, which thinks nothing more is needed, and despair, which thinks happiness…
- Seneca Of all these propositions that which I have stated first appears the most difficult to prove. I mean, that the things…
- Epictetus Events make us fearful when we judge that others control them. A stronghold falls not chiefly to fire or steel, but to…