Only The Educated Are Free

From Book II, Chapter 1 of the Discourses, where Epictetus defines education not as the accumulation of facts but as the training of judgment. Only those who can distinguish what is within their control from what is not are truly free - all others remain enslaved to circumstance regardless of social rank. The claim carried particular weight from Epictetus, who had been literally enslaved yet considered himself freer than most Roman citizens.