Stoic physics and ethics are easily understood by knowing their maxim. The maxim of the stoics is “Live according to nature.” The universe, according to the stoic philosophers, follows the exact laws of nature. Along the same line of thought, human beings are creatures of reason — our mental ability to understand nature.

If we follow our reason, then we are living by the laws of the universe, and living according to nature. In knowing and understanding the maxim of the stoics, their views of physics are simple to understand. If something can be theoretically detected by our senses than it exists, if not then it does not.

Seneca and Stoicism

Seneca was a rich Roman philosopher who helped develop Stoic philosophy. His most famous thoughts are listed in the book Letters From a Stoic in which he recorded a collection of letters to a friend. The letters emphasize living a lifestyle of balance, self-control, having good style, focusing on trustworthy friendships, not putting too much stock in earthly possessions, and keeping complete control over our own desires and finding contentment no matter what occurs to us.

Epictetus and Stoicism

Epictetus of the 1st and early 2nd centuries CE was a philosopher who lived in Rome and later Greece who agreed with and continued the ideas of stoic philosophy. He restructured many of the ideas of stoicism and challenged many of the traditional values of stoicism. In a four-volume work now known as Discourses. Of course, he didn’t actually write the volumes — they were recorded by others. in Discourses, Epictetus defined the three divisions of Stoicism. They are desires and aversions, the impulse to act and not to act, and finally the freedom from deception and hasty judgment.

In mastering these divisions, one is living by the stoics ideals. Epictetus spent his life writing, as he himself had reached his personal goals in stoicism, he sought to bring what he had learned and conceived about stoicism to his pupils and the world.

The details of Epictetus’ education are a mystery. He studied some with Musonius Rufus, who was a Stoic philosopher and Roman senator. Once Epictetus was freed from slavery, he began lecturing. In 89, however, he was forced the leave the city. The edict of Domitian banned philosophers, such as Epictetus, from the Italian peninsula.

After leaving Rome, he started a school in Nicopolis, a cultural center in Epirus in northwest Greece. His teachings in the Discourses are from his later career, about year 108. He taught and lectured at the school in Nicopolis up to his death, around the year 135.

Epictetus taught from the philosophy of Stoicism, which taught to live a philosophic life and to achieve happiness through living a virtuous life. His school in Nicopolis attracted many upper class Romans.

In his later years, Epictetus developed a limp in his walking. Some have attributed the limp to arthritis, while others claim lingering injuries from physical abuse suffered as a slave. He did not marry or have children. However, late in life, he did take in a child and care for it as an act of benevolence, because its parents could not care for it.

The Discourses is a four-volume work that represents the major part of Epictetus’ teachings. They were not actually written by Epictetus, but by Arrian of Nicomedia, a student of Epictetus. Scholars claim evidence that the Discourses were in fact the opinions of Epictetus and not Arrian, for two reasons. First, the language of the Discourses is common Greek, rather than Arrian’s typical more sophisticated language. Also, the brusquely expressive manner and the exact vocabulary, as well as the intellectual content of the Discourses, are different from Arrian’s other products. Some even believe that Epictetus composed them himself, without the help of Arrian.

Epictetus’ Encheiridion (Manual or Handbook in English) is the Discourses abridged, including the volumes of the Discourses that existed in antiquity. The abridgment is a severely shortened work, which makes it of little value for understanding Epictetus’ though and works. It may actually mislead readers as to his philosophies. Encheiridion does, however, offer some more insight into modern knowledge of its author, through quotational fragments by other ancient authors. These authors offer their understanding and opinions on the Discourses.

“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. ”
— Epictetus

“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
— Epictetus

“To accuse others for one’s own misfortune is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.”
— Epictetus

“First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.”
— Epictetus

“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. ”
— Epictetus

“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”
— Epictetus

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. ”
— Epictetus

“Only the educated are free.”
— Epictetus

“If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it.”
— Epictetus

“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
— Epictetus

“Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.”
— Epictetus

“No man is free who is not master of himself.”
— Epictetus

“You are a little soul carrying around a corpse”
— Epictetus

“It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance”
— Epictetus

“I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?”
— Epictetus

“Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and be silent. ”
— Epictetus

“Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.”
— Epictetus

“There is but one way to tranquility of mind and happiness, and that is to account no external things thine own, but to commit all to God.”
— Epictetus

“Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.”
— Epictetus

“What you shun enduring yourself, attempt not to impose on others. You shun slavery- beware enslaving others! If you can endure to do that, one would think you had been once upon a time a slave yourself. For vice has nothing in common with virtue, nor Freedom with slavery. ”
— Epictetus

“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself and in no instance bypass the discriminations of reason? You have been given the principles that you ought to endorse, and you have endorsed them. What kind of teacher, then, are you still waiting for in order to refer your self-improvement to him? You are no longer a boy, but a full-grown man. If you are careless and lazy now and keep putting things off and always deferring the day after which you will attend to yourself, you will not notice that you are making no progress, but you will live and die as someone quite ordinary.
From now on, then, resolve to live as a grown-up who is making progress, and make whatever you think best a law that you never set aside. And whenever you encounter anything that is difficult or pleasurable, or highly or lowly regarded, remember that the contest is now: you are at the Olympic Games, you cannot wait any longer, and that your progress is wrecked or preserved by a single day and a single event. That is how Socrates fulfilled himself by attending to nothing except reason in everything he encountered. And you, although you are not yet a Socrates, should live as someone who at least wants to be a Socrates.”
— Epictetus