Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views
which they take of things. Thus death is nothing
terrible, else it would have appeared so to Socrates.
But the terror consists in our notion of death, that it
is terrible. When, therefore, we are hindered, or disturbed, or grieved, let us never impute it to others,
but to ourselves; that is, to our own views. It is the
action of an uninstructed person to reproach others
for his own misfortunes; of one entering upon instruction, to reproach himself; and of one perfectly
instructed, to reproach neither others nor himself.
The Works of Epictetus: His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments. Epictetus. Thomas Wentworth Higginson. translator. New York. Thomas Nelson and Sons. 1890.
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