Quote Atlassourced quotes & context
Named source · c. 2nd century CE · represented George Long English translation

Discourses of Epictetus Quotes by Epictetus: Context & Meanings

6 quotations linked to Discourses of Epictetus by or associated with Epictetus, with source notes, explanations and related topics.

More by Epictetus
About this source

Arrian’s record of Epictetus’s Stoic teaching in George Long’s public-domain English translation

Topics and ideas

Control, confidence, caution, fear, judgment, freedom, responsibility, habit formation, providence and disciplined use of the will.

Edition and date context

c. 2nd century CE · represented George Long English translation

Dates represented in this collection: c. 125 · c. 125 CE · c. 108. Individual quotation notes provide the most specific context for a passage.

English wording

Translation

George Long — Translator · Ancient Greek → English

The wording shown here follows the represented English edition or translation.

Why the edition matters

Translations and editions can differ in wording, punctuation and emphasis, so the source attached to each quotation matters when exact phrasing is important.

Read the source

Open a public or archival text connected with these quotations

Use these links when you want to inspect the wording in its wider work or edition.

Primary / edition source · en.wikisource.org ↗ Primary / edition source · en.wikisource.org ↗ Primary / edition source · en.wikisource.org ↗ Primary / edition source · en.wikisource.org ↗
Leading themes in this source

Prominent ideas connected with the quotations represented here

Stoic 6Short 5Discipline Quotes About Habits, Practice & Consistency 4Inspirational Quotes About Hope, Courage & Possibility 4Motivational Quotes for Action, Effort & Persistence 4Consistency 3Habits 3Patience 3Productivity 3Self-Control Quotes About Restraint & Judgment 3Strength 3Success 3Wisdom Quotes About Judgment & Living Well 3Calm 2
Represented passages

6 quotations with source context and meaning

Source identified1
If you would make anything a habit, do it.
Read & copy

“If you would make anything a habit, do it.”

Epictetus
Meaning & context

Habit formation is reduced to repeated action: the behavior itself is what trains the pattern.

Source details

Discourses of Epictetus, Book II, Chapter XVIII, “How we should struggle against appearances,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. This short catalog record is an excerpt of Long’s longer clause “Generally then if you would make any thing a habit, do it”; this collection lightly normalizes “any thing” to “anything.”

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified2
If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.
Read & copy

“If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.”

Epictetus
Meaning & context

Skill grows through repeated practice rather than through wanting the identity without doing the activity.

Source details

Discourses of Epictetus, Book II, Chapter XVIII, “How we should struggle against appearances,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. Epictetus explains that habits and faculties are maintained by corresponding actions: “If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.”

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified3
Generally then if you would make anything a habit, do it.
Read & copy

“Generally then if you would make anything a habit, do it.”

Epictetus
Meaning & context

Repeated behavior trains the corresponding habit, so change depends on practicing the desired action rather than merely endorsing it in theory.

Source details

Discourses of Epictetus, Book II, Chapter XVIII, “How we should struggle against appearances,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. This collection lightly normalizes Long’s “any thing” to “anything”; this longer record contains the shorter retained habit excerpt represented by a separate legacy quote URL.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified4
No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.
Read & copy

“No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.”

Epictetus
Meaning & context

Epictetus treats worthwhile development as organic rather than instantaneous: ability, character and reconciliation require stages of growth that cannot be skipped simply because the final result is desired now.

Source details

Discourses of Epictetus, Book I, Chapter XV, “What Philosophy Promises,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. Epictetus answers a request for immediate improvement with the fig/grape analogy: nothing great is produced suddenly and development requires time.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified5
We shall both be cautious and confident, and indeed confident because of our caution.
Read & copy

“We shall both be cautious and confident, and indeed confident because of our caution.”

Epictetus
Meaning & context

Epictetus rejects confidence as recklessness: confidence becomes rational when caution is directed toward one’s own judgments and choices rather than toward externals that cannot be controlled.

Source details

Discourses of Epictetus, Book II, Chapter I, “That confidence (courage) is not inconsistent with caution,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. Epictetus distinguishes confidence toward externals from moral caution in the use of one’s own will.

↓ Download image (JPG)

Source identified6
For if we had understanding, ought we to do any thing else both jointly and severally than to sing hymns and bless the deity, and to tell of his benefits?
Read & copy

“For if we had understanding, ought we to do any thing else both jointly and severally than to sing hymns and bless the deity, and to tell of his benefits?”

Epictetus
Meaning & context

Epictetus links gratitude with attentive understanding: recognizing ordinary capacities and the order of life should produce praise rather than treating what sustains us as invisible or automatically deserved.

Source details

Discourses of Epictetus, Book I, Chapter XVI, “Of Providence,” George Long translation; 1877 George Bell & Sons witness on Wikisource, cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #10661. The passage is explicitly theological Stoicism: Epictetus says understanding should lead people to sing hymns, bless the deity and recount divine benefits.

↓ Download image (JPG)

More represented works

Continue through other sources by Epictetus

Enchiridionc. 2nd century CE · represented George Long English translation · 13 quotationsThe Golden Sayings of Epictetusc. 125 · 12 quotations