Epictetus (c. 55-c.135)

The Discourses

101

"You may fetter my leg, but my will not even Zeus himself can overpower."

What then should a man have in readiness in such circumstances? What else than "What is mine, and what is not mine; and permitted to me, and what is not permitted to me." I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment? "Tell me the secret which you possess." I will not, for this is in my power. "But I will put you in chains." Man, what are you talking about? Me in chains? You may fetter my leg, but my will not even Zeus himself can overpower. "I will throw you into prison." My poor body, you mean. "I will cut your head off." When, then, have I told you that my head alone cannot be cut off? These are the things which philosophers should meditate on, which they should write daily, in which they should exercise themselves.
(I.i)

Fetters

Reading Charles Taylor's Sources of Self . Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1989. p. 137.

Epictetus, The Discourses of Epictetus, with the Encheridion and Fragments. George Long, trans. (London: George Bell and Sons, 1890). <Link to Perseus>

01/14/2004

05/26/2011