“Virtue, until its very recent revival, has sounded
old-fashioned or even prissy to our modern ears. Epictetus’s teachings on
virtue had nothing to do with being a goody-goody or a doormat. Virtue,
happiness and tranquility are not separate experiences but co-emergent states.
“While he advocated being good for its own sake, his
practical observation was that a virtuous life leads to inner coherence and
outward harmony. There is great relief in being morally consistent: The soul
relaxes, and we can thus efficiently move forward in our endeavors, as
Epictetus would say, ‘without hindrance.’
“Inner confusion and evil itself spring from ambiguity.
Epictetus coaches us to call forth the best we have by making our personal
moral code explicit to ourselves. Freedom, ease and confidence are won as our
outward actions gradually conform to this code.” — Sharon
Lebell in “The Art of Living: Epictetus”
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