Epictetus: If you are able, then, by your own…

Conversation shapes the mind more than we admit. Spend enough time around gossip, contempt, and performative outrage, and those habits begin to feel normal. Epictetus recommends guiding conversation toward better subjects when you can, and using silence when you cannot. This is not a demand to become stiff or humorless. It is a reminder that every room does not need your contribution, and not every joke deserves your energy. Excessive talking and laughing can be ways of seeking attention or avoiding thought. Try being deliberate instead. At lunch or in a group chat, introduce something useful, ask a real question, or simply decline to add fuel to the cruelty. If the conversation will not improve, you can leave it alone. Silence is not emptiness when it protects your attention and keeps you from becoming the kind of person you would not respect.