CXL
Truth is a thing immortal and perpetual, and it gives to us a beauty which fades not away in time nor does it take away88 the freedom of speech which proceeds from justice; but it gives to us the knowledge of what is just and lawful, separating from them the unjust and refuting them.
CXLI
We should not have either a blunt knife or a freedom of speech which is ill managed.
CXLII
Nature has given to men one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.
CXLIII
Nothing really pleasant or unpleasant subsists by nature, but all things become so through habit (custom).89
CXLIV
Choose the best life, for custom (habit) will make it pleasant.
CXLV
Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.
CXLVI
A daughter is a possession to her father which is not his own.
CXLVII
The same person advised to leave modesty to children rather than gold.
CXLVIII
The reproach of a father is agreeable medicine, for it contains more that is useful than it contains of that which gives pain.
CXLIX
He who has been lucky in a son in law has found a son: but he who has been unlucky, has lost also a daughter.
CL
The value of education (knowledge) like that of gold is valued in every place.
CLI
He who exercises wisdom exercises the knowledge which is about God.
CLII
Nothing among animals is so beautiful as a man adorned by learning (knowledge).90
CLIII
We ought to avoid the friendship of the bad and the enmity of the good.
CLIV
The necessity of circumstances proves friends and detects enemies.
CLV
When our friends are present, we ought to treat them well; and when they are absent, to speak of them well.
CLVI
Let no man think that he is loved by any man when he loves no man.
CLVII
You ought to choose both physician and friend not the most agreeable, but the most useful.
CLVIII
If you wish to live a life free from sorrow, think of what is going to happen as if it had already happened.
CLIX
Be free from grief not through insensibility like the irrational animals, nor through want of thought like the foolish, but like a man of virtue by having reason as the consolation of grief.
CLX
Whoever are least disturbed in mind by calamities, and in act struggle most against them, these are the best men in states and in private life.
CLXI
Those who have been instructed, like those who have been trained in the palaestra, though they may have fallen, rise again from their misfortune quickly and skilfully.
CLXII
We ought to call in reason like a good physician as a help in misfortune.
CLXIII
A fool having enjoyed good fortune like intoxication to a great amount becomes more foolish.
CLXIV
Envy is the antagonist of the fortunate.
CLXV
He who bears in mind what man is will never be troubled at anything which happens.
CLXVI
For making a good voyage a pilot (master) and wind are necessary: and for happiness reason and art.
CLXVII
We should enjoy good fortune while we have it, like the fruits of autumn.
CLXVIII
He is unreasonable who is grieved (troubled) at the things which happen from the necessity of nature.
Some Fragments of Epictetus Omitted by Upton and by Meibomius
CLXIX
Of the things which are, God has put some of them in our power, and some he has not. In our own power he has placed that which is the best and the most important, that indeed through which he himself is happy, the use of appearances (φαντασιῶν). For when this use is rightly employed, there is freedom, happiness, tranquillity, constancy: and this is also justice and law, and temperance, and every virtue. But all other things he has not placed in our power. Wherefore we also ought to be of one mind with God, and making this division of things, to look after those which are in our power; and of the things not in our power, to entrust them to the Universe (τῷ κόσμῳ), and whether it should require our children, or our country, or our body, or anything else, willingly to give them up.91
CLXX
When a young man was boasting in the theatre and saying, I am wise, for I have conversed with many wise men; Epictetus said, I also have conversed with many rich men, but I am not rich.
CLXXI
The same person said, It is not good for him who has been well taught to talk among the untaught, as it is not right for him who is sober to talk among those who are drunk.
CLXXII
Epictetus being asked, What man is rich, answered, He who is content (who has enough).
CLXXIII
Xanthippe was blaming Socrates, because he was making small preparation for receiving his friends: but Socrates said, If they are our friends, they will not care about it; and if they are not, we shall care nothing about them.
CLXXIV
When Archelaus was sending for Socrates to make him rich, Socrates told the messengers to return this answer: At Athens four measures (choenices) of meal are sold for one obolus (the sixth of a drachme), and the fountains run with water: