Enchiridion 5, and part of Keith Seddon's commentary on it

 

Enchiridion 5, and part of Keith Seddon's commentary on it

"5. It is not the things themselves that disturb men, but their judgements about these things. For ​example, death is nothing dreadful, or else Socrates too would have thought so, but the judgement that death is dreadful, this is the dreadful thing. When, therefore, we are hindered, or disturbed, or grieved, let us never blame anyone but ourselves, that means, our own judgements. It is the part of an uneducated person to blame others where he himself fares ill; to blame himself is the part of one whose education has begun; to blame neither another nor his own self is the part of one whose education is already complete" (Epictetus, Enchiridion 5; Oldfather).

"When we are hindered, troubled or distressed we have only ourselves to blame, for we have assented to a false judgement that something that has happened is either good or bad when really it is indifferent, and thus we undermine our ‘good flow’ (euroia)" (Seddon, pg. 54).

Keith Seddon (2005). Epictetus' Handbook and the Tablet of Cebes 

Enchiridion 1, and part of Keith Seddon's commentary on it