The Golden Sayings of Epictetus

Stoicism was one of the first schools of philosophy that I started exploring so it’s always enjoyable for me to revisit the great Stoics. I haven’t read much Epictetus and I enjoyed it, however at times the translation was a bit confusing, and I couldn’t agree with everything Epictetus says. At one point he talks about how we should live without excess luxury, but then he says that having servants (read, slaves) attend to our house or dinner parties isn’t luxurious. I understand that having a few slaves was just part of the age and culture, but for a Philosopher who talks a lot about introspection and the importance of frugality it just seems strange that he would have accepted slaves (or even paid servants for that matter) as frugal, part of Nature’s Plan, instead of a bit over the top. Maybe he only needed them in his older age?

Ultimately I’m glad I read this. He mentions God often in his discussions, and if this would put anyone off I would suggest mentally replacing God with “All that is”. He doesn’t try to fit God within a specific doctrine or set of rules and traditions, instead he approaches God as one would approach a love of Fate, or Amor Fati. The idea of Stoicism is that the human concerns himself with what is in his control (which is often very little) and that God, or Fate, or what is outside of our control is ultimately for the best, and we should love the Will of God. He also mixes this idea of God with Nature, however he doesn’t expand a lot upon what is Nature and what isn’t.