You would fain be victor at the Olympic Games, you say. Yes, but weigh the conditions, weigh the consequences; then and then only, lay to your hand-if it be for your profit. You must live by rule, submit to diet, abstain from dainty meats, exercise your body perforce at stated hours, in heat or in cold; drink no cold water, nor, it may be, wine. In a word, you must surrender yourself wholly to your trainer, as though to a physician.
About this quote
- Attributed to
- Epictetus
- Culture / tradition
- Stoicism
- Attribution status
- As published
Photo: Berthold Werner · CC BY-SA 3.0 · source · Portrait: William Sonmans (1650–1708) Alternative names Wilhelm Sonmans; Wilhelm Sunman; William Sunman; Sonmans; Willem Sunman; Willem Sonmans (Public domain)
What would change if you lived this for one week?
Write one sentence in your journal about what this means to you.
Join to journal, save & shareCreate a share imageWatch & listen
Andrew Carnegie: Gospel of Wealth, Narrated by Brian Cox
9 Stoic Rules For A Better Life (From Marcus Aurelius)
Who is Seneca? (Rome's Greatest Stoic Thinker)
More from Epictetus & related wisdom
To love is to place our happiness in the happiness of another.
In order to seek truth, it is necessary once in the course of our life, to doubt, as far as possible, of all things.
Be bold to look towards God and say, "Use me henceforward for whatever you want; I am of one mind with you; I am yours; I refuse nothing that seems good to you; lead me where you will; wrap me in what clothes you will."
True love is like ghosts, which everyone talks about and few have seen.
