Practice yourself, for heaven's sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.
Epictetus Discourses, Book I, §18 (108 CE) Translated by Robert Dobbin
Source checked by an editor
When and why it was written
- When
- Around 108 CE, from Arrian's record of the lectures at Nicopolis.
- Why
- Students wanted to train for catastrophe. Epictetus redirected them to inconveniences.
What it means
A training instruction. You cannot rehearse for exile or bereavement, but you can rehearse on a spilled drink or a delay.
The reasoning is that composure is a trained response and training requires volume. Small provocations are the only ones that arrive often enough to be useful.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Discourses, 108 CE
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