SUPPOSE I should prove to you that you are
deficient in what is most necessary and important
to happiness, and that hitherto you have
taken care of everything, rather than your duty ;
and, to complete all, that you understand neither
what God or man or good or evil means? That
you are ignorant of all the rest, perhaps, you may
bear to be told; but if I prove to you that you
are ignorant even of yourself, how will you bear
with me, and how will you have patience to stay
and be convinced? Not at all. You will immediately
be offended and go away. And yet
what injury have I done you? unless a looking-glass
injures a person not handsome, when it
shows him to himself such as he is. Or unless
a physician can be thought to affront his patient
when he says to him,
"Do you think, sir, that
you ail nothing? You have a fever. Eat no
meat to-day, and drink water." Nobody cries
out here,
"What an intolerable affront!" But
if you say to anyone, Your desires are in a
fermentation; your aversions are low; your intentions
contradictory; your pursuits not conformable
to nature; your opinions rash and
mistaken; he presently goes away, and complains
he is affronted.
EPICTETUS. DISCOURSES. Book ii. §14. ¶3.
I love this post.
ReplyDeleteWe fall prey to our own opinions so easily. If we disagree regarding God, or good, or evil, we defend our stance, saying "That is merely your opinion. I have my own opinions on the matter that are equally valid." But if we are told that we don't even know ourselves well enough to form an opinion, we are offended. We stumble about blindly, grasping to this dogma or that doctrine as a drowning man to wreckage. Wisely did the Delphic Temple speak. Know yourself. But we refuse, we are wounded, as if a mirror, when it shows us our face, is somehow insulting us. - Inspired by Epictetus
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