Discourses

The Discourses of Epictetus are extracts from the teachings of the Stoic philosopher Epictetus, written and compiled by his pupil Arrian c. 108 AD. The books were originally eight in number, but only four now remain in their entirety, along with a few fragments of the others. In a preface attached to the Discourses, Arrian explains how he came to write them:I neither wrote these Discourses of Epictetus in the way in which a man might write such things; nor did I make them public myself, inasmuch as I declare that I did not even write them. But whatever I heard him say, the same I attempted to write down in his own words as nearly as possible, for the purpose of preserving them as memorials to myself afterward of the thoughts and the freedom of speech of Epictetus. The books did not have a formal title in ancient times; they are known today under their first line: "All that concerns right opinion depends on this: whether you choose to consider that... ".