If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
Genuine
Yes. In Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 13; George Long translation, chapter XIII.
Found word for word by program in the Greek original and in George Long’s English translation.
The wording people share comes from a later translation; Long’s words are underlined below.
- Work
- Enchiridion (Handbook) (Ἐγχειρίδιον), 107
- Where
- Section 13; George Long translation, chapter XIII
- Found at
- Paragraph 32 of the Greek text, 28 of the English
- Translation
- George Long
Researched by AI; checked by program against the full text on 31 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
On the page
[…] But matters are not so well with him, but altogether well with you, that it should be in his power for you to be not disturbed.
ἄρξαι τοιγαροῦν ἀπὸ τῶν σμικρῶν. ἐκχεῖται τὸ ἐλάδιον, κλέπτεται τὸ οἰνάριον: ἐπίλεγε ὅτι «τοσούτου πωλεῖται ἀπάθεια, τοσούτου ἀταραξία»: προῖκα δὲ οὐδὲν περιγίνεται. ὅταν δὲ καλῇς τὸν παῖδα, ἐνθυμοῦ, ὅτι δύναται μὴ ὑπακοῦσαι καὶ ὑπακούσας μηδὲν ποιῆσαι ὧν θέλεις: ἀλλ’ οὐχ οὕτως ἐστὶν αὐτῷ καλῶς, ἵνα ἐπ’ ἐκείνῳ ᾖ τὸ σὲ μὴ ταραχθῆναι.
If you would improve, submit to be considered without sense and foolish with respect to externals.1 Wish to be considered to know nothing; and if you shall seem to some to be a person of importance, distrust yourself. For you should know that it is not easy both to keep your will in a condition conformable to nature and (to secure) external things: but if a man is careful about the one, it is an absolute necessity that he will neglect the other.
Εἰ προκόψαι θέλεις, ὑπόμεινον ἕνεκα τῶν ἐκτὸς ἀνόητος δόξας καὶ ἠλίθιος, μηδὲν βούλου δοκεῖν ἐπίστασθαι: κἂν δόξῃς τις εἶναί τισιν, ἀπίστει σεαυτῷ. ἴσθι γὰρ ὅτι οὐ ῥᾴδιον τὴν προαίρεσιν τὴν σεαυτοῦ κατὰ φύσιν ἔχουσαν φυλάξαι καὶ τὰ ἐκτός, ἀλλὰ τοῦ ἑτέρου ἐπιμελούμενον τοῦ ἑτέρου ἀμελῆσαι πᾶσα ἀνάγκη.
Where it comes from
The popular form is the opening of the modernised version of Elizabeth Carter’s translation in the Internet Classics Archive (classics.mit.edu, section 13: ‘If you want to improve…’), cut before ‘with regard to external things’; Carter’s own text (Wikisource transcribes the edition it dates 1759) reads ‘If you would improve’; George Long’s translation, used here, reads “submit to be considered without sense and foolish with respect to externals”.
The scene
Section 12 tells the would-be philosopher to drop worries such as “if I neglect my affairs I shall have nothing to live on”. Section 13 goes on: be willing to look senseless and foolish about externals, do not wish to seem to know anything, and distrust yourself if others think you important, because one cannot at the same time keep one’s will in accord with nature and secure external things.
What it means
Progress in character costs the good opinion of others: accept looking foolish about worldly matters, and be wary of being thought important.
Often misread
Shared as encouragement to risk looking foolish while learning a new skill. The Handbook means something narrower and harder: indifference to looking foolish “with respect to externals”, money, status and reputation, because caring for them and for one’s own will at once is impossible.
Also shared as
- Another public-domain translationIf you would improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to Externals. Elizabeth Carter’s translation (Wikisource transcription of the edition it dates 1759); the popular form drops “with regard to Externals”. Where it was seen
Topics
Related quotes
- Of things some are in our power, and others are not.
- It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
- First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
- You become what you give your attention to. (misattributed)
- A student is the most important person ever in this school. William W. Purkey
Sources
- gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10661/pg10661.txt (George Long translation; corpus source)
- el.wikisource.org/wiki/Εγχειρίδιον (Greek corpus source)
- en.wikisource.org/wiki/All_the_Works_of_Epictetus,_Which_Are_Now_Extant/The_Encheiridion (Carter translation, XIII)
Cite it
Epictetus, Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 13; George Long translation, chapter XIII, translated by George Long. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/be-content-to-be-thought-foolish-and-stupid/ (31 October 2026).
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Checked by people
People who checked this entry against its source, under their own names. Their checks do not change the verdict: an editor reviews every entry.
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