The Discourses

The Discourses of Epictetus (c. 50–135 CE) are not the philosopher's own writing — they are transcripts of his Stoic lectures, recorded by his student Arrian and preserved as the most complete classroom Stoicism we have from the ancient world. They are the source from which Marcus Aurelius drew, the text Frederick the Great carried on campaign, and the seed of the modern Stoic revival.

Epictetus had been born a slave and freed in adulthood. He taught with the directness of someone for whom freedom was not a metaphor — distinguishing relentlessly between what is in our power (our judgments, intentions, desires) and what is not (our bodies, reputations, the actions of others). The discipline he taught was a working method, not a theory, and the Discourses preserve its full force.

This selection reproduces George Long's nineteenth-century translation, gathering the surviving books with the Enchiridion (Manual) at the end.