Happiness is commonly mistaken for passively experienced pl… - Epictetus

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Happiness is commonly mistaken for passively experienced pleasure or leisure. That conception of happiness is good only as far as it goes. The only worthy object of all our efforts is a flourishing life. True happiness is a verb. It’s the ongoing dynamic performance of worthy deeds. The flourishing life, whose foundation is virtuous intention, is something we continually improvise, and in doing so our souls mature. Our life has usefulness to ourselves and to the people we touch.

Epictetus

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About Epictetus

Epictetus (c. 55 – c. 135 AD), born a slave, was a Greek Stoic philosopher. His words were recorded by his student Arrian in the Discourses and Enchiridion written in the early 2nd-century.

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Native Name: ΕΠΙΚΤΗΤΟΣ

Alternative Names: Epictetus of Hierapolis • Epiktetos

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Is the child or wife of another dead? There is no one who would not say, “This is an accident of mortality.” But if anyone’s own child happens to die, it is immediately, “Alas! how wretched am I!” It should be always remembered how we are affected on hearing the same thing concerning others.

But the tyrant will chain …’ What? Your legs. ‘But he’ll cut off …’ What? Your head. What is he incapable, then, of chaining up or cutting off? Your power of choice.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

Happiness is commonly mistaken for passively experienced pleasure or leisure. That conception of happiness is good only as far as it goes. The only w… - Epictetus

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