July 26, 2026

Blame No One

It is the sign of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition; it is the sign of one who has begun to be instructed, to lay the blame on himself; and of one whose instruction is completed, neither to blame another, nor himself.

Epictetus was born a slave in Hierapolis and later taught philosophy in Nicopolis after being banished from Rome; his student Arrian recorded these teachings in the Enchiridion, a short handbook meant for daily practice. Here Epictetus maps three stages of growth by where a person places blame: the untrained blame others, the developing blame themselves, and the wise blame no one at all. This progression traces the dichotomy of control — once you see that only your own judgments and choices are truly yours, blame becomes pointless, since externals were never in anyone's power to begin with. Stoic practice trains this shift daily: before reacting to a person or event, you ask what part of this situation is actually yours to answer for. The goal isn't passivity but precision — pouring effort only into the choices and responses that are genuinely up to you.

A principle of Stoicism: The Dichotomy of Control →