September 25, 2026

Train In Secret

When you have brought yourself to supply the needs of the body at small cost, do not pique yourself upon it; nor, if you drink water, say upon every occasion, 'I drink water.' And if you wish to inure yourself to labor and endurance, do it for yourself, and not for the world; do not grasp at statues; but when you are violently thirsty, take a draught of cold water, and spit it out again, and tell no one.

Epictetus, once a slave in Rome who became one of Stoicism's most practical teachers, taught in Nicopolis after being exiled by Emperor Domitian, and his lessons were recorded by his student Arrian in the Enchiridion. In this passage he warns against turning self-denial into a performance, insisting that if you drink water instead of wine or endure thirst, you should do it quietly and for your own sake, not to impress others. The image of spitting out the water and telling no one captures the whole point: the value of hardship lies in what it builds inside you, not in what it displays to others. The Stoics practiced voluntary discomfort deliberately, choosing plain food, cold, or brief scarcity so the body would learn that comfort is not required for peace of mind. Done well, this training is invisible to everyone except the person doing it, and that is exactly the point.

A principle of Stoicism: Voluntary Discomfort →