Discourses, Fragments, Handbook (Oxford World's Classics) by Epictetus

Author:Epictetus
Language: eng
Format: azw3, epub
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2014-02-12T16:00:00+00:00

3.17 On Providence

[1] Whenever you find fault with providence, just give the matter some thought and you’ll recognize that what came about was in accordance with reason.

[2] ‘Yes, but someone who is unjust comes off better.’

In what? In money. For in that regard he has the better of you because he flatters people, because he has no shame, because he stays awake at night. Is there anything surprising in that? [3] But look to see whether he is better than you in being trustworthy and honest. Because you’ll find that not to be the case; but rather, in those things in which you’re superior to him, you’ll find that you’re the one who is better off.

[4] I said one day to someone who was indignant at the prosperity of Philostorgus: Would you have been willing to go to bed with Sura?*—‘Heaven forbid’, he replied, ‘that such a day should ever arrive!’ [5] —Why are you indignant, then, if he gets some reward for what he sells? Or how can you account a man happy if he acquires his prosperity through means that you abhor? What wrong is providence committing if it gives the better things to the better people? Or isn’t it better to be honourable than to be rich? The man agreed. [6] So why are you indignant, man, if you have what is of greater worth? Always remember, then, and keep in mind that it is a law of nature that one who is superior has the advantage over one who is inferior in the respect in which he is superior, and you’ll never again have cause for indignation.

[7] ‘But my wife behaves badly to me.’

Very well. If someone asks you what the matter is, reply, ‘My wife behaves badly to me.’—‘And nothing more than that?’—Nothing more.

[What is the matter? [8] ‘My father doesn’t give me anything.’] Must you add further in your own mind that this is something bad, and so add a falsehood too? That’s why it is not poverty that we should reject, but the judgement that we hold about it, and then our life will run happily.

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