quote · Words worth keeping
Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person's own life.
Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person's own life.
Approximate author period: c. 50 AD · classical
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- Epictetus
Attribution: attributed - Country attributed
- Not established
A country attribution does not establish the earliest origin. - Historical period
- Approximate author period: c. 50 AD · classical
Approximate author-period anchor from documented birth year 50; activity date not established; Wikidata Q183144, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q183144 (accessed 2026-10-08). Not a quotation composition date.
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Supplied reference C; CSV row 11610; supplied attribution, independently unverified
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Listed in the author section of Bartlett’s ninth-edition anthology, in the linked 1905 printing. Dates reflect that historical edition and may differ from modern scholarship.
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