Aug 11– The Golden Sayings of Epictetus translated and arranged by Hastings Crossley (1903)

 Is PewDiePie still cool? (Trick question, Epictetus wouldn't care.)

Aug 11– The Golden Sayings of Epictetus translated and arranged by Hastings Crossley (1903)

Summary: Questionable collection/translation of mostly good stoic stuff.

Commentary: Again, I don't really love (or even understand) how this wound up in T5FSOB. It's not a great translation, and it's not original. Eliot mostly focused on complete, original works for the collection, which makes sense. For some reason, this random collection of questionably compiled/translated sayings made it through. Instead of just whining, I'll highlight my favorite one for tonight:

CLXXIII

It stamps a man of mean capacity to spend much time on the things of the body, as to be long over bodily exercises, long over eating, long over drinking, long over other bodily functions. Rather should these things take the second place, while all your care is directed to the understanding.

I think this is a good way of talking about moderation. Often we just get, "Don't overdue X," or "Do only as my Y as your need."

Second place means you can still care about and enjoy them, just focus instead on your priorities.