Short Works

Born enslaved and lamed by his master, Epictetus studied Stoic philosophy while in bondage. Once freed, he survived Domitian's banishment of all philosophers from Rome to settle in Greece, where he founded a school of philosophy. He quickly rose to prominence as a renowned Stoic scholar and teacher, and even though he was personally favored by emperors, he kept a simple life.

While most of Epictetus's writings were compiled in the Discourses by his student Arrian of Nicomedia, his writings were also summarized in a short manual called the "Enchiridion." A short handbook with practical suggestions on how to live a good and satisfying life, it remained popular for centuries with translations to different languages completed as early as 1493, and was even a common school text in Scotland during the 18th century.

This Standard Ebooks edition collects the "Enchiridion" together with Epictetus's miscellaneous fragmentary teachings.

Perfect for readers seeking timeless wisdom and practical guidance for daily life, this collection offers profound insights from one of history's most influential Stoic philosophers. Epictetus's teachings on resilience, virtue, and inner freedom remain as relevant today as they were in ancient Rome, making this essential reading for anyone interested in philosophy, personal development, or classical wisdom.

The source for this public-domain ebook is Standard Ebooks (standardebooks.org). Ebooks from other sources often have typos, inconsistent spelling, missing accent marks, and missing punctuation. Ebooks from Standard Ebooks are proofread line by line against a scan of the original printed pages, then proofread again from cover to cover. They are also formatted and typeset following a professional-grade style manual, resulting in new editions supporting state-of-the-art ereader technology: automatic hyphenation, popup footnotes, complete and consistent metadata, high-resolution and scalable vector graphics, and ereader-compatible tables of contents. All of this makes the finished ebooks accurate, functional, and beautiful, a pleasure to read. (Waking Lion Press is not affiliated with or endorsed by Standard Ebooks.)