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Are you Still Keeping up with the Joneses? A lesson from Epictetus
Ever since I first heard of Stoicism, I have been diligently trying to learn more about it. As Newton said, “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of Giants.” With that in mind, I try to read wisdom from someone like Marcus Aurelius or Epictetus every day, but it’s much harder to put it into practice. There’s an old Latin phrase, Docendo discimus, that has been reshaped again and again by people much smarter than myself, but in essence: “By teaching, we learn.” So maybe by trying to explain it to you, it will also help me gain further understanding. Let’s begin with a quote from Epictetus that recently spoke to me.
“If you would improve, be content to be thought foolish and dull with regard to externals. Do not desire to be thought to know anything; and though you should appear to others to be somebody, distrust yourself. For be assured, it is not easy at once to keep your will in harmony with nature and to secure externals; but while you are absorbed in the one, you must of necessity neglect the other.” — Epictetus (Enchiridion 13)
Wow, this is a good one. If I had to sum it up with one phrase, I think I would choose “function over fashion”. But let’s break it down piece by piece.
“If you would improve, be content to be thought foolish and dull with regard to…
