"'For,' it was his habit to say, 'as a stone, if you cast it upward, will be brought down to the earth by its own nature, so the man whose mind is naturally good, the more you repel him, the more he turns toward that to which he is naturally inclined.'"
— Epictetus (c. 55-c.135)
Author
Work Title
Date
101
Metaphor
"'For,' it was his habit to say, 'as a stone, if you cast it upward, will be brought down to the earth by its own nature, so the man whose mind is naturally good, the more you repel him, the more he turns toward that to which he is naturally inclined.'"
Metaphor in Context
It is not easy to exhort weak young men; for neither is it easy to hold cheese with a hook. But those who have a good natural disposition, even if you try to turn them aside, cling still more to reason. Wherefore Rufus generally attempted to discourage, and he used this method as a test of those who had a good natural disposition and those who had not. "For," it was his habit to say, "as a stone, if you cast it upward, will be brought down to the earth by its own nature, so the man whose mind is naturally good, the more you repel him, the more he turns toward that to which he is naturally inclined."
(III.vi)
(III.vi)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Epictetus, The Discourses of Epictetus, with the Encheridion and Fragments. George Long, trans. (London: George Bell and Sons, 1890). <Link to Perseus>
Date of Entry
01/14/2004
