this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2025
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[–] [email protected] 16 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

Yeah.

But part of the problem was how Epictetus presented it himself.

Epictetus: Every time you look at your wife, imagine her already dead.

Marcus Aurelius: Treasure every moment you have with your wife, knowing that you have no control over whether you will still have her tomorrow.

They say the same thing, maybe? I don't know what was going on in Epictetus' head. But Epictetus was pretty brutal about his presentation. The difference being, probably, that one was an ex-slave, and the other an Emperor.

Also: it's common to attribute stoicism to Epictetus, but stoicism predates him by several hundred years. If there was any founder, it was Zeno. This always rustles my jimmies a little.

Oh, and, although not a stoic:

Diogenes: who needs a wife?