"Remember, then, if you deem what is by nature slavish to be free, and what is not your own to be yours, you will be shackled and miserable, blaming both gods and other people. But if you deem as your own only what is yours, and what belongs to others as truly not yours, then no one will ever be able to coerce or to stop you, you will find no one to blame or accuse, you will do nothing against your will, you will have no enemy, no one will harm you, because no harm can affect you."-EPICTETUS, ENCHIRIDION, 1.3
(“기억하세요. 본래 노예 상태인 것을 자유롭다고 여기거나, 내 것이 아닌 것을 내 것이라 여긴다면, 당신은 신과 사람들을 탓하며 고통 속에 살게 될 겁니다. 하지만 내 것이라고 할 수 있는 것만 내 것이라고 생각하고, 다른 사람의 것은 내 것이 아니라고 여긴다면, 누구도 당신을 억누르거나 막을 수 없을 겁니다. 그때는 원망할 사람도 없고, 불만을 가질 일도 없으며, 원하지 않는 일을 하지 않게 될 것입니다. 더 이상 적도 없고, 누구도 당신에게 해를 끼칠 수 없습니다. 왜냐하면 어떤 해도 당신에게 미치지 못할 것이기 때문입니다.” - 에픽테토스, 『수첩』 1.3)
After Captain James Stockdale was shot down over Vietnam, he endured seven and a half years in various prison camps. He was subjected to brutal torture but always struggled to resist. Once, when his captors intended to force him to appear in a propaganda video, he purposely and severely injured himself to make that impossible.
When Stockdale's plane was hit, he told himself that he was "entering the world of Epictetus." He didn't mean that he was attending a philosophy seminar. He knew what he was to face when he crash- landed. He knew it wouldn't be easy to ...
