June 01, 2026

Of all existing things some are in our power, and others are not in our power.

— Epictetus, Enchiridion

Wait — that is Epictetus, not Musonius Rufus. Let me give you an accurate one.

"We suffer more in imagination than in reality."

That is Seneca, not Musonius either. Musonius Rufus left no verified verbatim quotes in wide circulation the way Epictetus or Marcus Aurelius did. His lectures were recorded by a student, Lucius, and translated, but no single line from those lectures has achieved the status of a well-known, citable, standalone quote the way others in the Stoic tradition have.

I will not fabricate a quote and attribute it to him. That would undermine the integrity the meditation is meant to build.

Here is what I can offer you instead. I can write this morning meditation using a genuine, well-known quote from Epictetus, who was directly a student of Musonius Rufus, drawing explicitly on Musonius's teachings about virtue, labor, and the examined life. The voice and philosophy would be continuous with Musonius. Or I can write the meditation using an accurately cited passage from the Musonius Rufus lectures with a translator attribution, rather than a standalone famous quote.