Lived: c. 50–135 AD, Hierapolis (Phrygia, modern-day Turkey); later Rome and Nicopolis, Greece
Known for: Born into slavery in the Roman Empire, he later gained his freedom and become a Stoic teacher who ran a philosophy school in Nicopolis. He taught students how to live with reason, discipline and self-control.
Famous for: He never wrote anything himself. His teachings survive through the recordings of his student Arrian, who preserved them in the Discourses and later compiled the shorter handbook known as the Enchiridion.
Note: The quote is a shortened paraphrase of a passage in Enchiridion, Chapter 5: “The untrained person blames others for his own failings. The one who has begun his training blames himself. The trained person blames neither others nor himself.” Epictetus describes progress in philosophy as learning to examine our judgments without blaming others or ourselves. Read this passage in context in our free modern English edition of the Enchiridion.
