Question 1

What is the best book to start with?

Accepted Answer

Enchiridion 1, 3, 5, and 8, with a note of whose English you are reading. Those chapters are the system in miniature, and they show how severe the exercises are before the quotations go on mugs.

Question 2

What is the most famous quote?

Accepted Answer

This library does not measure fame, and it does not rank lines by how often they are shared. The first line it files for Epictetus that is not marked Questionable or Misattributed is “Some things are up to us and some are not. Up to us are judgement, impulse, desire, aversion — in a word, whatever is our own doing. Not up to us are our body, our property, reputation, office — in a word, whatever is not our own doing.” (Enchiridion 1, from Arrian's notes, Paraphrase or translation).

Question 3

What is the most misquoted line?

Accepted Answer

None of the lines this library files for Epictetus is marked Misattributed or Questionable. That is a fact about these cards, not a certificate that every popular sentence is theirs.

Question 4

What is one key idea, in a sentence?

Accepted Answer

What is up to us: Freedom is located in judgement, impulse, desire, and aversion, not in controlling outcomes.