Epictetus · c. 50 – c. 135 CE
Enchiridion 39 — Epictetus
Translation by George Long (1877)
Epictetus, Enchiridion 39
The measure of possession (property) is to every man the body, as the foot is of the shoe. If then you stand on this rule (the demands of the body), you will maintain the measure: but if you pass beyond it, you must then of necessity be hurried as it were down a precipice. As also in the matter of the shoe, if you go beyond the (necessities of the) foot, the shoe is gilded, then of a purple colour, then embroidered: for there is no limit to that which has once passed the true measure.
Cite this passage
Epictetus, Enchiridion 39, tr. George Long (1877)
https://whatwouldstoicsdo.com/passage/enchiridion/39
Epictetus, Enchiridion and Fragments, tr. George Long (1877). Text: Standard Ebooks (CC0). Sources and licences
In plain English
AI-written notesLet your real needs set the limit on what you own, as the foot sets the size of the shoe. Go beyond that and there is no stopping point, since the shoe goes from gilded to purple to embroidered, and you get swept down a slope of wanting more.
Older wording
- “gilded”
- — covered with a thin layer of gold
Themes and situations
- Simplicity and frugality
- Wealth and poverty
- Desire and craving
- Self-discipline and habit
- Money, status and wanting more
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