B
The following Fragments are ascribed jointly to Epictetus and other authors.
1
Moderation, as it is a short and agreeable way, brings much delight and little trouble.
2
Fortify yourself with moderation; for this is an impregnable fortress.
3
Prefer nothing to truth, not even the choicest friendship, since this borders on those passions by which justice is both confounded and darkened.
4
Truth is an immortal and an eternal thing. It bestows not a beauty which time will wither, nor a courage which may quail before a human tribunal; but only things just and lawful, from which it divides and destroys all that is unjust.
5
We should have neither a blunt sword nor a pointless speech.
6
Nature has given man one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear twice as much as we speak.
7
Nothing is in reality either pleasant or unpleasant by nature; but all things become such through habit.
8
Choose the best life; for habit will make it pleasant.
9
Choose rather to leave your children well instructed than rich. For the hopes of the wise are better than the riches of the ignorant.
10
A daughter is to a father a possession which is not his own.
11
The same person advised to bequeath modesty to children, rather than gold.
12
The reproof of a father is an agreeable medicine; for the profit is greater than the pain.
13
He who is fortunate in a son-in-law finds a son; he who is unfortunate in one loses likewise a daughter.
14
The worth of instruction, like that of gold, passes current in every place.
15
He who cultivates wisdom cultivates the knowledge of God.
16
There is no creature so beautiful as a man adorned by instruction.
17
We ought to flee the friendship of the wicked, and the enmity of the good.
18
Misfortunes test friends, and detect enemies.
19
We ought to do well by our friends when they are present, and speak well of them when they are absent.
20
Let him not think himself loved by any, who loves none.
21
We ought to choose, both for a physician and for a friend, not the most agreeable, but the most useful.
