Tuesday, July 25, 2017

July 24th Reading from The Daily Stoic - Somewhere Someone's Dying


"Whenever disturbing news is delivered to you, bear in mind that no news can ever be relevant to your reasoned choice. Can anyone break news to you that your assumptions or desires are wrong? No way! But they can tell you someone died - even so, what is that to you?"

~ Epictetus, Discourses, 3.18.1-2

Suffers a little in the translation, I think, and sounds wrong - "can anyone break news to you that your assumptions or desires are wrong?" Most people would say, "Heck, yeah! All the time!" But Epictetus means that if you have accepted the truth of Stoic teachings, the answer would be "no."




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