No Man Is Free Who Is

A paraphrase drawn from Book IV of the Discourses. Epictetus, who spent his early life as a slave in Rome, developed a philosophy in which true freedom is entirely internal. His teacher Musonius Rufus had taught a similar doctrine, but Epictetus's personal history gave it unmatched authority. The idea that self-mastery is the precondition of liberty became one of the most quoted Stoic principles.