C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
From the ‘Fragments’
By Epictetus (c. 50–c. 138)
From Thomas Wentworth Higginson’s ‘The Works of Epictetus’
Sweet and Bitter
I
T is scandalous that he who sweetens his drink by the gift of the bees, should by vice embitter reason, the gift of the gods.
Love of Man
NO one who is a lover of money, a lover of pleasure, or a lover of glory, is likewise a lover of mankind; but only he who is a lover of virtue.
Monuments
IF you have a mind to adorn your city by consecrated monuments, first consecrate in yourself the most beautiful monument,—of gentleness and justice and benevolence.
Civic Honor
YOU will confer the greatest benefits on your city, not by raising its roofs, but by exalting its souls. For it is better that great souls should live in small habitations, than that abject slaves should burrow in great houses.
Healing
IT is more necessary for the soul to be healed than the body; for it is better to die than to live ill.
For Humanity
A PERSON once brought clothes to a pirate who had been cast ashore and almost killed by the severity of the weather; then carried him to his house, and furnished him with all necessaries. Being reproached by some one for doing good to the evil, “I have paid this regard,” answered he, “not to the man, but to humanity.”
Aspiration
THINK of God oftener than you breathe.
Divine Presence
IF you always remember that God stands by as a witness of whatever you do, either in soul or body, you will never err, either in your prayers or actions, and you will have God abiding with you.
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