A guide to Epictetus’s Enchiridion

What the Enchiridion is

Enchiridion (Long spells it Encheiridion) is a Greek word for something held in the hand. The standard Greek lexicon gives it several senses, among them a hand-knife and a handbook, and cites this book under the second (Liddell and Scott, at Perseus (opens in a new tab)). In English it usually goes by Handbook or Manual.

The teaching is that of Epictetus, a formerly enslaved Greek Stoic who taught at Nicopolis, in northwestern Greece, until his death around 135 CE. As far as we know he wrote nothing. His student Arrian of Nicomedia, later a historian, recorded his lectures as the Discourses and drew the Enchiridion from them: an abstract of their main ethical teaching (Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy (opens in a new tab)).

It is short. The standard division has 53 chapters, and George Long’s translation runs to about 8,000 words. Most chapters speak to “you,” and many open with an instruction: remember, never say, when you see. There is little argument. The handbook tells you what to do and leaves the reasons to the Discourses.

In the sixth century the philosopher Simplicius wrote a long commentary on it, and after Poliziano translated it into Latin in 1497 it became exceptionally popular in Europe for two hundred years (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (opens in a new tab)).

Its themes, in its own words

Here is what the book itself says on seven of its topics, in Long’s 1877 translation, with a note on each.

What is up to us (chapter 1)

Everything else in the book rests on this list. In our power, the omitted lines say, are opinion, impulse, desire and aversion: in a word, our own acts. Note that your own body is on the other list.

The modern name for this division is the dichotomy of control, and you can try the free exercise there. Chapter 5 says we are disturbed not by things but by our opinions about them (Enchiridion 5, explained). Chapter 8 says not to seek that things happen as you wish but to wish them to be as they are, an attitude later labeled with Nietzsche’s phrase amor fati. For the popular line about power over your mind, see where it comes from.

Desire: behave as at a banquet (chapter 15)

There are three instructions, one for each position of the dish. When it reaches you, take a decent share. When it passes, let it go. When it hasn’t come yet, don’t reach down the table after it. Epictetus applies the image to children, a wife, public office and wealth, which covers most of what people want from a life.

The third is the hard one. “Do not send your desire forward to it” (Enchiridion 15) means not living in the promotion, the house or the relationship that isn’t in front of you yet.

Roles: an actor in a play (chapter 17)

You don’t choose the play, its length or your part. You may be cast as a poor man, a lame man, a magistrate or a private citizen. Epictetus had been enslaved and walked with a limp, so the lame man is a part he knew. What is yours is how well you play it. Chapter 30 applies the same idea to family: your duty follows the relationship, even when a father or brother behaves badly. The chapter has its own page: Enchiridion 17, an actor in a play.

Other people: describe before you judge (chapter 45)

Saying a man drinks much is an observation. Saying he drinks badly is a verdict, reached before you know whether he is in the wrong. At work the difference looks like this: she sent the email at 11 p.m. is a fact, and she is trying to make me look bad is an opinion you added to it. The chapter’s last sentence states a point of Stoic theory: keep your assent for impressions you have actually grasped.

Chapter 20 makes the same move with insults. What irritates you is your opinion about the insult, and the first defense is delay (Stoicism and anger). Chapter 42 adds a reason for patience with whoever wrongs you: he is following what seems right to him.

Loss: “I have restored it” (chapter 11)

This chapter is hard to read: its examples are a dead child and a dead wife, not a broken cup. Epictetus changes one word. What you call lost was given to you, and the giver has taken it back. The last sentence shows he isn’t asking you to stop caring: look after what you have the way a traveler looks after a room at an inn, carefully, knowing it belongs to someone else.

Chapter 3 prepares for this one: when you love something, remind yourself what it is, a jug that can break, a person who will die. The modern name for that habit is negative visualization. For grief itself, see what the Stoics said about grief.

Progress: content to look foolish (chapter 13)

Epictetus expects improvement to cost you socially. If you stop competing for what everyone else is competing for, some people will think you foolish, and he tells you to accept it. If people start to think you important, “distrust yourself” (Enchiridion 13).

Later chapters return to this. Chapter 29 counts what the philosophical life costs, as a would-be Olympic champion must count the training, injuries and defeats (Stoicism and difficult decisions). Chapter 48 lists the signs of progress, among them blaming no one. Chapter 51 asks how long you will keep postponing your own improvement, now that you are no longer young (Stoicism and procrastination).

The last word (chapter 53)

The book ends with other people’s words, lines to “hold these maxims ready to hand” (Enchiridion 53). The first is a short verse prayer by Cleanthes, who led the Stoic school after Zeno. The second is from Euripides. The last two are Socrates’ words in Plato’s Crito and Apology. The final one, said of his accusers, sums up the handbook: “they cannot harm me” (Enchiridion 53). What other people can do reaches only what was never yours.

All 53 chapters in one line each

Our own one-line summaries, in order. Where another page of this site explains a chapter, the link ends its line.

Chapters 1 to 14: what is yours

1. Opinion, desire and aversion are in our power; body, property, reputation and office are not. (Dichotomy of control)
2. Desire promises you will get what you want. Aim aversion only at what is in your power, and for now set desire aside.
3. Remember what the things you love are: a jug can break, and the person you kiss is mortal. (Negative visualization)
4. Before you act, picture what usually happens, as at the public baths, and resolve to keep your will in order. (Difficult decisions)
5. People are disturbed by their opinions about things, not by the things. Blame neither others nor yourself. (Enchiridion 5)
6. Don’t take pride in a fine horse as if its beauty were yours. What is yours is the use you make of impressions.
7. Ashore on a voyage, pick up shells if you like, but listen for the captain’s call. (Quotes about death)
8. Don’t seek to have events go as you wish; wish them to be as they are, and life will flow calmly. (Amor fati)
9. Illness hinders the body and lameness the leg, but neither hinders the will unless the will itself chooses. (Things you can’t control)
10. Whatever happens, ask what power you have to put it to use: self-control, endurance or patience. (Failure)
11. Never say you have lost something, only that you have given it back. Care for what you have as a traveler cares for an inn.
12. Start with small things, like spilled oil: that is the price of calm, and nothing is free. (Epictetus quotes)
13. To improve, accept being thought foolish about externals; you cannot guard your will and chase externals at once.
14. Wanting the people you love to live forever is wanting what isn’t yours. Whoever controls what you want is your master.

Chapters 15 to 28: desire, roles and other people’s power

15. Behave as at a banquet: take a decent share when the dish reaches you, and don’t reach after it.
16. When someone grieves, sympathize and even lament with them aloud, but not inwardly: their opinion is what afflicts them. (Grief)
17. You are an actor in a play someone else wrote. Your part is to play the role well, not to choose it. (Enchiridion 17)
18. A bad omen can only concern your body, property, reputation or family, and you can draw benefit from whatever happens.
19. Enter no contest you cannot win, and you can’t be beaten. Don’t envy the honored or the powerful. (Things you can’t control)
20. It is your opinion that insults you, not the person. Take time before you react. (Anger)
21. Keep death before your eyes daily, and you will want nothing mean or excessive. (Memento mori)
22. If you take up philosophy, expect to be mocked. Don’t look down on anyone, and hold to what seems best.
23. If you turn to externals to please someone, you have lost your purpose. Be a philosopher in your own eyes first.
24. Don’t fear being a nobody. Your worth lies in what is in your power.
25. Whoever was invited or greeted ahead of you paid for it in flattery and attendance; you kept your coin. (Envy)
26. When your cup breaks, or a loss comes to your own house, think of it as you would if it were a neighbor’s.
27. Evil has no place in the nature of the world, as a target is not set up to be missed.
28. You wouldn’t hand your body over to a stranger, so why hand him your mind and let his insults upset it?

Chapters 29 to 41: choosing a life, and daily conduct

29. In every act, consider what comes first and what follows; the would-be Olympian must count the training, injuries and defeats. (Difficult decisions)
30. Duties follow relationships. A bad father is still your father; ask what you must do. (Difficult people)
31. Piety is right opinion about the gods and willing acceptance of what happens. (Is Stoicism a religion?)
32. Consult a diviner only about outcomes reason can’t know, never about whether to stand by a friend or your country in danger.
33. The longest chapter: rules for conduct. Say little, laugh moderately, don’t gossip about people. (Temperance)
34. When a pleasure presents itself, make it wait, and weigh the enjoyment against the regret after. (A Stoic daily routine)
35. Once you have decided something is right, do it openly, even if most people will judge it wrongly.
36. At a shared meal, the largest portion may suit your body but not the company. Think of the host.
37. Take on a role beyond your strength and you play it badly and neglect the one you could have played well.
38. Watch over your mind as you watch where you step, so as not to injure your ruling faculty.
39. The body is the measure of possessions, as the foot is of the shoe. Pass that measure and there is no limit. (Four virtues)
40. From fourteen, girls are flattered by men as if they were good only for sex, so they stake everything on their looks; let them know they are valued for decency and modesty. It shows its age.
41. Much time spent on exercise, eating and drinking shows a small mind. Give your main care to the mind.

Chapters 42 to 53: other people, progress and the last word

42. Whoever wrongs you is doing what seems right to him, and if he is mistaken, he is the one harmed. (Difficult people)
43. Everything has two handles. Take your brother’s wrong by the one you can carry: he is your brother. (Stoic quotes)
44. Being richer or more eloquent makes your property or your speech better, not you.
45. Describe what people do without judging it: say a man drinks much, not that he drinks badly.
46. Don’t call yourself a philosopher or lecture people on principles. Show what you have digested in what you do. (Toxic Stoicism)
47. If you live simply, don’t boast of it. Train your endurance for yourself, not for an audience. (Voluntary discomfort)
48. The signs of progress: blaming no one, not talking about yourself as if you were somebody, watching yourself closely. (Evening Examination)
49. Being able to explain Chrysippus is nothing to be proud of. What counts is living by what he teaches. (What is Stoicism?)
50. Keep the rules you have accepted as if they were laws, and pay no attention to what people say about you.
51. How long will you put off thinking yourself worthy of the best? You are no longer young; live now as an adult making progress. (Procrastination)
52. Philosophy has three parts: precepts, their proofs, and the logic of proof. We spend our time on the third and still lie. (Stoicism for beginners)
53. Lines to keep ready: Cleanthes’ prayer to be led by Zeus and destiny, two lines of Euripides, and two sayings of Socrates.

Enchiridion or Discourses first?

Read the Enchiridion first, straight through, then again a chapter at a time. Then go on to the Discourses.

The handbook is the quickest way to see the whole of Epictetus’s ethics, but it is an abridgment. Its instructions arrive without their reasons, which can make Epictetus sound colder or more absolute than he is. The Stanford Encyclopedia warns that at points it can mislead about why he held his views (SEP (opens in a new tab)).

The Discourses give you the reasons and the people. Four books survive, of an original eight (IEP (opens in a new tab)), and they are many times the length of the handbook. In them Epictetus argues, jokes, loses patience and answers questions: from a man asking how to make peace with an angry brother (1.15), from a young rhetorician with carefully styled hair (3.1), from an anxious man about to see someone powerful (2.13). Some handbook chapters appear there at full length: chapter 29’s Olympic athlete turns up almost word for word in Book 3.

If you read only one discourse next, make it 1.1, on the things that are in our power, the long version of chapter 1. For a reading order across all the Stoics, see Stoicism books.

Translations

This site quotes George Long’s translation, first published in 1877. It is accurate and in the public domain, so every passage can be checked word for word. It is also Victorian: it says thou in places, translates Epictetus’s key term prohairesis as “will,” and adds alternative words in parentheses, like “offices (magisterial power)” in chapter 1.

Other translations you will meet include Elizabeth Carter’s classic eighteenth-century version; W. A. Oldfather’s two-volume Loeb edition from the 1920s, with the Greek on facing pages; Nicholas White’s The Handbook of Epictetus (1983), the handbook alone; Robin Hard’s complete Epictetus (1995), a revision of Carter’s; and Robin Waterfield’s The Complete Works (2022). The recent ones are still in copyright, so we don’t quote them. For which suits a beginner, see Stoicism books.

Is The Art of Living a translation?

No. Sharon Lebell’s The Art of Living (1995) is billed as a new interpretation, which is the right word. A translation follows the Greek sentence by sentence, so you can cite a chapter and check it. Lebell restates the ideas in her own words and order, so her sentences are hers, not Epictetus’s; check a line against a translation before you quote it as his. Fake Stoic quotes shows how far some popular lines have drifted from the texts.

Read it free

Long’s translation is free at Project Gutenberg as A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion (eBook #10661 (opens in a new tab)). The handbook is complete there, after Long’s short biographical note on Epictetus and a selection from the Discourses. Long numbers it in 52 chapters because he runs the standard 50 and 51 together, so from 51 on his numbers are one lower than the ones used here. Every Enchiridion passage on this site is checked word for word against that file.

The handbook suits slow reading: a chapter a morning, and at night a minute to ask whether you used it. The Evening Examination gives that review a structure, and today’s teaching gives you a passage to start with.