Epictetus Enchiridion
Epictetus: Whatever moral rules you have deliberately…
Whatever moral rules you have deliberately proposed to yourself. abide by them as they were laws, and as if you would be guilty of impiety by violating any of them. Don't regard what anyone says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours.
The passage follows a public-domain translation of the Enchiridion. The reading beside it is ours.
Principles only matter when they cost you something. It is easy to say you value honesty, patience, or restraint when nothing presses against those values. The real test arrives when a lie would be convenient, an insult would feel satisfying, or everyone else is cutting a corner. Treat the rules you have chosen with the seriousness of commitments, not with the flexibility of a mood. This does not mean becoming rigid or refusing to revise a belief after better evidence. It means not abandoning your standards merely because it would be socially easier. People may call you difficult for declining gossip, leaving early, or refusing to join an unethical shortcut. Their opinion is outside your control; your conduct is not. Decide in advance what kind of person you intend to be, then let criticism pass through without changing the decision. Today, keep one small promise to yourself even if nobody notices.
Related passages
- Seneca It is your duty to imitate their constancy in enduring and triumphing over suffering, as far as it is permitted to a…
- Marcus Aurelius Keep thyself therefore, truly simple, good, sincere, grave, free from all ostentation, a lover of that which is just,…
- Seneca Plato, Zeno, Chrysippus, and many other Stoics spoke well. People make such words their own by doing what they have…