Epictetus · The Handbook
Chapter 24
Do not let thoughts like these crush you: “I will live without honor, a nobody, nowhere.” For if lack of honor is an evil, you cannot be in evil through another person, any more than you can be in disgrace through another. Is it your doing to obtain office, or to be invited to a dinner party? Not at all. How, then, is missing them a dishonor? And how will you be “a nobody, nowhere,” when you need to be somebody only in the things that are up to you – where you can be of the greatest worth?
οὗτοί σε οἱ διαλογισμοὶ μὴ θλιβέτωσαν «ἄτιμος ἐγὼ βιώσομαι καὶ οὐδεὶς οὐδαμοῦ.» εἰ γὰρ ἡ ἀτιμία ἐστὶ κακόν, οὐ δύνασαι ἐν κακῷ εἶναι δι’ ἄλλον, οὐ μᾶλλον ἢ ἐν αἰσχρῷ· μή τι οὖν σόν ἐστιν ἔργον τὸ ἀρχῆς τυχεῖν ἢ παραληφθῆναι ἐφ’ ἑστίασιν; οὐδαμῶς. πῶς οὖν ἔτι τοῦτ’ ἔστιν ἀτιμία; πῶς δὲ οὐδεὶς οὐδαμοῦ ἔσῃ, ὃν ἐν μόνοις εἶναί τινα δεῖ τοῖς ἐπὶ σοί, ἐν οἷς ἔξεστί σοι εἶναι πλείστου ἀξίῳ;
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‘But your friends will go without help.’ What do you mean, “without help”? They won’t get spending money from you; you won’t make them Roman citizens. Well, who told you these things are among what is up to us, rather than other people’s business? And who can give another what he does not have himself?
ἀλλά σοι οἱ φίλοι ἀβοήθητοι ἔσονται. τί λέγεις τὸ ἀβοήθητοι; οὐχ ἕξουσι παρὰ σοῦ κερμάτιον· οὐδὲ πολίτας Ῥωμαίων αὐτοὺς ποιήσεις. τίς οὖν σοι εἶπεν, ὅτι ταῦτα τῶν ἐφ’ ἡμῖν ἐστιν, οὐχὶ δὲ ἀλλότρια ἔργα; τίς δὲ δοῦναι δύναται ἑτέρῳ, ἃ μὴ ἔχει αὐτός; «κτῆσαι οὖν,» φησίν, «ἵνα ἡμεῖς ἔχωμεν.»
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‘Then acquire it,’ he says, ‘so that we can have it.’ If I can acquire it while keeping myself self-respecting and trustworthy and high-minded, show me the road and I will acquire it. But if you demand that I lose my own goods so that you can gain things that are not good at all – look how unfair and thoughtless you are being. And which do you actually want more: money, or a friend who is trustworthy and self-respecting? Then help me toward that, and don’t demand that I do the things that would make me lose it.
εἰ δύναμαι κτήσασθαι τηρῶν ἐμαυτὸν αἰδήμονα καὶ πιστὸν καὶ μεγαλόφρονα, δείκνυε τὴν ὁδὸν καὶ κτήσομαι. εἰ δ’ ἐμὲ ἀξιοῦτε τὰ ἀγαθὰ τὰ ἐμαυτοῦ ἀπολέσαι, ἵνα ὑμεῖς τὰ μὴ ἀγαθὰ περιποιήσησθε, ὁρᾶτε ὑμεῖς, πῶς ἄνισοί ἐστε καὶ ἀγνώμονες. τί δὲ καὶ βούλεσθε μᾶλλον; ἀργύριον ἢ φίλον πιστὸν καὶ αἰδήμονα; εἰς τοῦτο οὖν μοι μᾶλλον συλλαμβάνετε καὶ μή, δι’ ὧν ἀποβαλῶ αὐτὰ ταῦτα, ἐκεῖνά με πράσσειν ἀξιοῦτε.
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‘But my country,’ he says, ‘as far as it depends on me, will get no help.’ Again – what kind of help do you mean? It won’t get colonnades from you, or bathhouses. And so what? It doesn’t get shoes from the blacksmith either, or weapons from the shoemaker. It is enough if each person does his own work well. If you provided your country with one more trustworthy and self-respecting citizen, wouldn’t you be doing it some good? ‘Yes.’ Then you yourself are not useless to it.
«ἀλλ’ ἡ πατρίς, ὅσον ἐπ’ ἐμοί,» φησίν, «ἀβοήθητος ἔσται.» πάλιν, ποίαν καὶ ταύτην βοήθειαν; στοὰς οὐχ ἕξει διὰ σὲ οὔτε βαλανεῖα. καὶ τί τοῦτο; οὐδὲ γὰρ ὑποδήματα ἔχει διὰ τὸν χαλκέα οὐδ’ ὅπλα διὰ τὸν σκυτέα· ἱκανὸν δέ, ἐὰν ἕκαστος ἐκπληρώσῃ τὸ ἑαυτοῦ ἔργον. εἰ δὲ ἄλλον τινὰ αὐτῇ κατεσκεύαζες πολίτην πιστὸν καὶ αἰδήμονα, οὐδὲν ἂν αὐτὴν ὠφέλεις; «ναί.» οὐκοῦν οὐδὲ σὺ αὐτὸς ἀνωφελὴς ἂν εἴης αὐτῇ. «τίνα οὖν ἕξω,» φησί, «χώραν ἐν τῇ πόλει;» ἣν ἂν δύνῃ φυλάττων ἅμα τὸν πιστὸν καὶ αἰδήμονα.
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‘So what place,’ he says, ‘will I hold in the city?’ Whatever place you can hold while remaining trustworthy and self-respecting. But if, in wanting to help your city, you throw those qualities away, what use will you be to it once you have ended up shameless and untrustworthy?
εἰ δὲ ἐκείνην ὠφελεῖν βουλόμενος ἀποβαλεῖς ταῦτα, τί ὄφελος ἂν αὐτῇ γένοιο ἀναιδὴς καὶ ἄπιστος ἀποτελεσθείς;