The Handbook of Epictetus
Handbook 29.3
Translated by Clint Miller
Think it over, and if you still want it, go be an athlete. Otherwise you will behave like children, who play wrestlers one minute, gladiators the next, then blow trumpets, then act out tragedies. That’s you: now an athlete, now a gladiator, then an orator, then a philosopher – and with your whole soul, nothing. Like a monkey, you imitate every spectacle you see, and one thing after another catches your fancy. For you never approached anything with reflection, never examined it all the way around – only at random, on a lukewarm desire.
ταῦτα ἐπισκεψάμενος, ἂν ἔτι θέλῃς, ἔρχου ἐπὶ τὸ ἀθλεῖν. εἰ δὲ μή, ὡς τὰ παιδία ἀναστραφήσῃ, ἃ νῦν μὲν παλαιστὰς παίζει, νῦν δὲ μονομάχους, νῦν δὲ σαλπίζει, εἶτα τραγῳδεῖ· οὕτω καὶ σὺ νῦν μὲν ἀθλητής, νῦν δὲ μονομάχος, εἶτα ῥήτωρ, εἶτα φιλόσοφος, ὅλῃ δὲ τῇ ψυχῇ οὐδέν· ἀλλ’ ὡς πίθηκος πᾶσαν θέαν, ἣν ἂν ἴδῃς, μιμῇ καὶ ἄλλο ἐξ ἄλλου σοι ἀρέσκει. οὐ γὰρ μετὰ σκέψεως ἦλθες ἐπί τι οὐδὲ περιοδεύσας, ἀλλ’ εἰκῇ καὶ κατὰ ψυχρὰν ἐπιθυμίαν.