Read The Enchiridion in Daily Email Installments
The handbook. Epictetus's teaching boiled down by his student Arrian into fifty-three short rules you could carry in a pocket — and people have been carrying it for nineteen centuries. One rule a day, done in under two months.
One installment a day: 53 days — under two months. Pause, rewind, or stop anytime.
Start reading — freeWhy read The Enchiridion?
Enchiridion means "something held in the hand," and that is the whole design: not a book to study but a manual to keep within reach. Arrian took the Discourses he had already recorded and compressed them into the fifty-three things you would actually need to remember under pressure. It has been used that way ever since — by Roman soldiers, by Renaissance humanists, by a US Navy pilot who credited it with getting him through seven years as a prisoner of war.
Section I is the most consequential paragraph in Stoicism: some things are up to us, and some are not, and nearly all human misery comes from confusing the two. The other fifty-two work out what follows.
The sections are short — most under a hundred words — so each arrives on its own, exactly as written, one per email. This is our shortest serial after the Sonnets, and the best place to start if you have never read any philosophy at all.
What an installment looks like
Of things some are in our power, and others are not. In our power are opinion (ὑπόληψις), movement towards a thing (ὁρμή), desire, aversion (ἔκκλισις, turning from a thing); and in a word, whatever are our own acts: not in our power are the body, property, reputation, offices (magisterial power), and in a word, whatever are not our own acts. And the things in our power are by nature free, not subject to restraint nor hindrance: but the things not in our power are weak, slavish, subject to restraint, in the power of others. Remember then that if you think the things which are by nature slavish to be free, and the things which are in the power of others to be your own, you will be hindered, you will lament, you will be disturbed, you will blame both gods and men: but if you think that only which is your own to be your own, and if you think that what is another’s, as it really is, belongs to another, no man will ever compel you, no man will hinder you, you will never blame any man, you will accuse no man, you will do nothing involuntarily (against your will), no man will harm you, you will have no enemy, for you will not suffer any harm.
If then you desire (aim at) such great things, remember that you must not (attempt to) lay hold of them with a small effort; but you must leave alone some things entirely, and postpone others for the present. But if you wish for these things also (such great things), and power (office) and wealth, perhaps you will not gain even these very things (power and wealth) because you aim also at those former things (such great things): certainly you will fail in those things through which alone happiness and freedom are secured. Straightway then practise saying to every harsh appearance, You are an appearance, and in no manner what you appear to be. Then examine it by the rules which you possess, and by this first and chiefly, whether it relates to the things which are in our power or to things which are not in our power: and if it relates to anything which is not in our power, be ready to say, that it does not concern you.
Questions
How long does it take to read the Enchiridion?
About thirty-five minutes straight through (8,149 words) — which is why almost nobody remembers any of it. By email it's 53 daily installments of under a minute each, finished in under two months, and the point is that it stays with you.
Is this a good first book of philosophy?
It's the best one we carry for that. There is no argument to follow, no background required, and no installment longer than a couple of paragraphs. If Seneca and Marcus feel like a commitment, start here.
How is this different from the Discourses?
Same teacher, same student writing it down. The Discourses are the classroom — long, digressive, argumentative. The Enchiridion is the summary Arrian made afterward, stripped to the rules. Many readers do the handbook first, then the classroom.
Which translation is this?
George Long's classic public-domain translation, in the Standard Ebooks edition — the same translator as our Meditations and Discourses.
How does it arrive?
One numbered section per email, one email a day, at the hour you pick. Never split, never abridged. Free. Unsubscribe or pause anytime.
Pick your delivery hour, confirm your email, and installment 1 of 53 arrives with the next send. Free, and unsubscribe anytime.
Start The EnchiridionBrowse all books · How long does a classic take? Try the calculator