7 h 13 minAudiobook8 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at costPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
What if living well begins with knowing what is not yours to control?
In The Teaching of Epictetus, a Greek Stoic asks how to live well when so much lies beyond your reach. The Enchiridion, a short handbook, and passages from the Discourses offer habits for the mind, meant for daily use. The starting point is simple: separate what is up to you from what is not.
Epictetus treats philosophy as a craft to practise, not a subject to display. He explores how judgments shape distress, how to accept a role you do not choose, and how to meet the duties that come with it. His advice brings questions of virtue, freedom, and inner peace into daily life, where worry, anger, and other people's opinions can pull you about.
What you’ll discover
- Draw the line Begin with the distinction between what you can control and what lies beyond you.
- Look at your judgments Consider Epictetus's claim that your views of events trouble you more than events themselves.
- Accept your part Explore his image of life as a play whose roles are not yours to choose.
- Meet your daily duties Discover a Stoicism that asks you to fulfil your roles rather than withdraw from them.
- Practise rather than perform Follow a teacher who challenges students to live their philosophy, not merely explain it.
Who will love it
For anyone who feels pulled about by worry, anger or other people's opinions, and for readers who love short, direct advice they can try the same day.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- Sort what is up to you
- Your judgments upset you, not events
- Accept your part in the play
- Do your duties in each role
- Train every day, and do not just talk
- Why these ideas have lasted
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Las enseñanzas de Epicteto
by Epicteto
Epictetus draws a line between what you control and what you cannot, making daily choices the ground of inner freedom.
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From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
Sort what is up to you
Epictetus opens the handbook with one division. Some things are up to us, and some are not. Up to us are our opinions, our impulses, our desires and our dislikes, in short whatever is our own doing. Not up to us are our bodies, our property, our reputation and our office, in short whatever is not our own doing.
He says the trouble starts when we mix the two up. If you treat your body, your money or your good name as fully yours, you will be blocked and upset again and again, because other people and chance can take them away. If you treat only your own choices as yours, no one can truly force or hinder you. Freedom, for him, means wanting only what lies within your own power.
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What is the Enchiridion of Epictetus about?
It is a short handbook of Stoic advice. It teaches you to separate what you can control from what you cannot, to watch your judgments, and to act well in your roles, so that you stay calm and free.
Did Epictetus write this book himself?
No. Epictetus taught by speaking. His student Arrian wrote down the Discourses and made the short Enchiridion from them, so the sayings come from the teacher but were set down by the pupil.
What does Enchiridion mean?
It is a Greek word meaning something held in the hand, so it can mean a handbook or a small dagger. Here it means a pocket manual of rules that a student could keep ready.
The author
Epictetus
50–125 · Ancient Greek Stoic philosopher
Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher who lived in the first and second centuries AD. Born in Hierapolis, in present-day Turkey, he was enslaved in Rome and later freed. He taught in Nicopolis, Greece. His pupil Arrian recorded his teachings in the Discourses and Enchiridion during the second century.
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