Originally published at: Enchiridion | Epictetus — Рустам Агамалиев
🚀 The Book in 3 Sentences
It’s nice, small, and dense.
🎨 Impressions
How I Discovered It
I’ve read it for [[Withstand Устоять]] which we are doing with [[Сергей Сухов]].
Who Should Read It?
Any person who is interested in works of Stoics.
☘️ How the Book Changed Me
How my life / behaviour / thoughts / ideas have changed as a result of reading the book.
✍️ My Top 3 Quotes
📒 Ideas
Life is a banquet, not all courses will be for your taste
- Do not reach for something out of your reach, if you do take your piece with decency.
- Worrying about something that has passed you on it way is moot. Nothing is guaranteed.
- Respect everyone present.
- Wife.
- Children.
- Superiors.
- Inferiors.
- Authority.
- But the best thing to do, is not to take anything offered.
- Not only abstain, but openly despise what is given, then you raise above yourself and crowd, and truly transcend.
- Life is external, living is internal.
Be happy not equals to be powerful
- When I was younger, I thought that power and position in life solve many problems.
- In the course of the next 15 years I’ve obtained position and power. But did it bring me happiness? No. Why?
- Power comes at cost, some people are willing to pay, some not.
- So when you observe a person honored with power, material wealth, position of high esteem, do not envy him.
- Being carried away by appearance is an easy thing to do.
- Keep your mind cool and your thoughts clear.
- Your only wish should be to be a free man.
- Care not of things that are not in your power.
Actors playing roles
- Not so long ago, I’ve read roles arch in [[Harry Potter and the methods of rationality#Roles we play]], and now this. Ideas are similar, though consequences are different.
- Duties are universally measured by relations.
- Like, what does it mean to be a good parent?
- What if one of your parent hadn’t been good to a child does it mean that a child will be a bad parent too?
- Not necessary. We choose who to become and what to become. Pity that children do not learn this principle at school.
- If somebody has wronged you, it is your reaction that is important.
- A wronged person would be damaged only if he or she chose to be damaged. And think that they were damaged.
- Life is external, our reaction is internal.
- Thinking in such a way, means that we agree to play by the rules of a wrongdoer and in his domain.
- Act and not react.
- The same thing could be said about tasks that constantly fall in our shoulders from the superiors at work.
- We decide to accept the task the moment it has been sent, or we delay reaction, and move the task to the own domain to act on it in from the position of personal gain and with enough thought.
- It is only possible if we get accustomed to contemplating the relations.
- Duties are universally measured by relations.
You don’t even know how bad I am
- I used to think of evil eyeing and something bad, and modern girls react on what is said about them from the position of defense, which is correct response by modern standards.
- But completely incorrect from other perspective.
- Acceptance that the world is not an ideal place to live, and if a person who speaks ill about you knew all the facts, he wouldn’t just mention trivialities.
- I have greater skulls in the wardrobe.
The work of philosophy is not to vomit words
- In a decent company is accustomed to speaking one’s mind on different topics.
- Though some people have greater knowledge than others and the most important quality such men must train, is to keep silent and not spit out words.
- Give themselves time to think and reflect, evaluate what to say and how to say.
- Stay the quietest person in the room, the most dangerous.
- [[Antifragile book 1#^ed987f]]
- Words that you’ve digested are not for vomiting them, they serve another purpose.
- Act on them. Action of educated person differ from actions of uneducated one. ^e386b7
- Stay silent, stay the biggest game in the room. Do not become prey to the rash decisions.
- [[How to Think Like a Roman Emperor – Donald J Robertson#Be an agent not a librarian]]
Uneducated person looks externally
- [[#^e386b7]] He tends to look for everything from external conditions.
- If he thinks about harm, he considers someone or something acting towards him.
- If he thinks about profit and benefits, he hopes that they will fall on him from skies or action of someone else.
- I see many children who think that life is full of presents, but they miss seeing their internal conditions.
- The true philosopher expects all harm and advantages from inside, not outside.
Mystery solved is mystery acted
- What of all the work of philosophers I’ve read? Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Aurelius and now Epictetus.
- They show only words, some of them are hard to decipher, and for that reason, I call for interpreter [[Мышление Платона]].
- Has it helped me? Not in the slightest.
- When I choose to study Plato or any work of Stoics, I choose to be a grammarian, instead of builder.
- Instead of building something with the tools I am provided with, I decide to admire the exposition. Which is a nice thing, but useless.
- Acts must be consistent with the words, if you digested the work of philosopher, act on it.
- Demonstrated work speaks more about what you know about philosophy than any number of words.
📚 Related Books
- [[The Practicing Stoic]]
- [[How to Think Like a Roman Emperor – Donald J Robertson]]
- [[Meditations]]
