But part of the problem was how Epictetus presented it himself.
Epictetus: Every time you look at your wife, imagine her already dead.
Marcus Aurelius: Treasure every moment you have with your wife, knowing that you have no control over whether you will still have her tomorrow.
They say the same thing, maybe? I don’t know what was going on in Epictetus’ head. But Epictetus was pretty brutal about his presentation. The difference being, probably, that one was an ex-slave, and the other an Emperor.
Also: it’s common to attribute stoicism to Epictetus, but stoicism predates him by several hundred years. If there was any founder, it was Zeno. This always rustles my jimmies a little.
Yeah.
But part of the problem was how Epictetus presented it himself.
Epictetus: Every time you look at your wife, imagine her already dead.
Marcus Aurelius: Treasure every moment you have with your wife, knowing that you have no control over whether you will still have her tomorrow.
They say the same thing, maybe? I don’t know what was going on in Epictetus’ head. But Epictetus was pretty brutal about his presentation. The difference being, probably, that one was an ex-slave, and the other an Emperor.
Also: it’s common to attribute stoicism to Epictetus, but stoicism predates him by several hundred years. If there was any founder, it was Zeno. This always rustles my jimmies a little.
Oh, and, although not a stoic:
Diogenes: who needs a wife?