Epictetus · c. 50 – c. 135 CE
Enchiridion 11 — Epictetus
Translation by George Long (1877)
Epictetus, Enchiridion 11
Never say about anything, I have lost it, but say I have restored it. Is your child dead? It has been restored. Is your wife dead? She has been restored. Has your estate been taken from you? Has not then this also been restored? But he who has taken it from me is a bad man. But what is it to you, by whose hands the giver demanded it back? So long as he may allow you, take care of it as a thing which belongs to another, as travellers do with their inn.
Cite this passage
Epictetus, Enchiridion 11, tr. George Long (1877)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/enchiridion/11
Epictetus, Enchiridion and Fragments, tr. George Long (1877). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesThink of loss as giving something back and not as having it taken. A child, a partner or property were only on loan, so it does not matter whose hands collected them, and while you have them, look after them as a traveller treats a room at an inn.
Older wording
- “estate”
- — land and property
Themes and situations
- Grief and mourning
- Change and impermanence
- Acceptance and fate
- Gratitude
- Bereavement
- Losing money
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