August 26, 2026

Draw The Line First

Of things some are in our power, and others are not. In our power are opinion, movement towards a thing, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own acts: not in our power are the body, property, reputation, offices, and, in a word, whatever are not our own acts.

Epictetus was born a slave in Hierapolis and later taught philosophy in Rome until Emperor Domitian banished all philosophers, sending him to Nicopolis to found his school. This line opens the Enchiridion, the handbook his student Arrian compiled from his lectures, and it stands as the founding statement of his entire teaching. The passage sorts existence into two piles: our judgments, desires, and choices belong to us completely, while our body, possessions, and reputation never fully do. Stoics practice this by pausing at each event and asking which pile it belongs to, then spending their effort only on the first. Over centuries this single distinction became known as the dichotomy of control, the hinge on which the rest of Stoic practice turns.

A principle of Stoicism: The Dichotomy of Control →