We Cannot Choose Our External Circumstances

From Book II of the Discourses, transcribed by Arrian from Epictetus's lectures at his school in Nicopolis, Greece, around 108 AD. Having been enslaved as a child and permanently lamed by his master, Epictetus spoke about the limits of external control from lived experience. This passage articulates the Stoic "dichotomy of control" - the division between what is "up to us" and what is not - which Seneca and Marcus Aurelius also placed at the center of their philosophy.