What We Control

Epictetus — Enchiridion

Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and in a word, whatever are our own actions.

This is the opening line of the Enchiridion ("Handbook"), a short manual of Stoic ethics compiled around 125 AD by Epictetus' student Arrian. Epictetus, born a slave, built his philosophy on a single dividing line: what is "up to us" (our judgments, desires, and actions) versus everything else. That distinction became one of the most influential ideas in Stoic thought.