First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Genuine
Yes. In Discourses (108), Book 3, chapter 23, section 1 (opening sentence); George Long translation, Book III, XXIII, “To Those Who Read and Discuss for the Sake of Ostentation”.
Found word for word by program in the Greek original and in George Long’s English translation (1877).
The wording people share differs slightly from the text; the words in the text are underlined below.
- Work
- Discourses (Διατριβαί), 108
- Where
- Book 3, chapter 23, section 1 (opening sentence); George Long translation, Book III, XXIII, “To Those Who Read and Discuss for the Sake of Ostentation”
- Found at
- Paragraph 386 of the Greek text, 533 of the English
- Translation
- George Long, 1877
Researched by AI; checked by program against the full text on 31 October 2026. Editorial review: pending. How we check
On the page
To Those Who Read and Discuss for the Sake of Ostentation
πᾶσι, μάλιστα δ’ ἐμοί.” [109] οὕτως καὶ τῆς ἰδίας παρασκευῆς συνῄσθετο καὶ τῆς ἐκείνης ἀδυναμίας.
First say to yourself who you wish to be, then do accordingly what you are doing; for in nearly all other things we see this to be so. Those who follow athletic exercises first determine what they wish to be, then they do accordingly what follows. […]
Τίς εἶναι θέλεις, σαυτῷ πρῶτον εἰπέ· εἶθ’ οὕτως ποίει ἃ ποιεῖς. καὶ γὰρ ἐπὶ τῶν ἄλλων σχεδὸν ἁπάντων οὕτως ὁρῶμεν γινόμενα. […]
Do you wish to know then if you have received any advantage? Produce your opinions, philosopher. What is the thing which desire promises? Not to fail in the object. What does aversion promise? […]
Θέλεις οὖν γνῶναι, εἰ ὠφέλησαι; [9] φέρε σου τὰ δόγματα, φιλόσοφε. τίς ἐπαγγελία ὀρέξεως; μὴ ἀποτυγχάνειν. τίς ἐκκλίσεως; [10] μὴ περιπίπτειν. ἄγε, πληροῦμεν αὐτῶν τὴν ἐπαγγελίαν; εἰπέ μοι τἀληθῆ· ἂν δὲ ψεύσῃ, ἐρῶ σοι “πρῴην ψυχρότερόν σου τῶν ἀκροατῶν συνελθόντων καὶ μὴ ἐπιβοησάντων σοι τεταπεινωμένος ἐξῆλθες· [11] πρῴην ἐπαινεθεὶς περιήρχου καὶ πᾶσιν ἔλεγες “τί σοι ἔδοξα;” “θαυμαστῶς, κύριε, τὴν ἐμήν σοι σωτηρίαν.” […]
You then, who are in a wretched plight and gaping after applause and counting your auditors, do you intend to be useful to others? “Today many more attended my discourse. Yes, many; we suppose five hundred.” […]
[19] Οὕτως οὖν κακῶς διακείμενος καὶ χάσκων περὶ τοὺς ἐπαινέσοντας καὶ ἀριθμῶν τοὺς ἀκούοντάς σου θέλεις ἄλλους ὠφελεῖν; “σήμερόν μου πολλῷ πλείονες ἤκουσαν.” “ναί, πολλοί.” “δοκοῦμεν ὅτι πεντακόσιοι.” […]
Where it comes from
The popular wording is Elizabeth Carter’s translation (Wikisource transcribes the edition it dates 1759), which Wikiquote quotes; the passage is Discourses 3.23.1. George Long’s 1877 translation, used here, reads “who you wish to be”.
The scene
The sentence opens a discourse against philosophers who read and lecture to be admired. Epictetus compares them with athletes, who first decide whether they will be long-distance runners, sprinters or pentathletes and then train accordingly: everything we do must be referred to an end, first that of a human being, then that of one’s own role. He then asks the lecturer what end his showpieces serve, and mocks him for counting his audience and craving applause.
What it means
Decide first what kind of person you mean to be; then let what you do follow from that choice.
Often misread
Quoted as goal-setting or self-branding advice. In the discourse “what you would be” means first a human being and then one’s particular role, and the target is the teacher whose real aim is applause, so the line is a test of motives rather than a recipe for success.
Also shared as
- Another public-domain translationFirst say to yourself, what you would be; and then do, what you have to do. Elizabeth Carter’s translation as printed (Wikisource transcription of the edition it dates 1759); the popular form drops her commas. Where it was seen
Topics
Related quotes
- You’re not going to get rich renting out your time. Naval Ravikant
- If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
- Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it. (paraphrase)
- No longer talk at all about the kind of man that a good man ought to be, but be such. Marcus Aurelius
- Be the change you wish to see in the world. (misattributed) Mahatma Gandhi
Sources
- en.wikisource.org/wiki/All_the_Works_of_Epictetus,_Which_Are_Now_Extant/Book_3/Chapter_23 (Carter translation, §1)
- en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Epictetus (Discourses, opening list)
- standardebooks.org/ebooks/epictetus/discourses/george-long/text/single-page (George Long translation, 1877; corpus source)
- el.wikisource.org/wiki/Διατριβαί (Greek corpus source)
Cite it
Epictetus, Discourses (108), Book 3, chapter 23, section 1 (opening sentence); George Long translation, Book III, XXIII, “To Those Who Read and Discuss for the Sake of Ostentation”, translated by George Long (1877). Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/first-say-to-yourself-what-you-would-be/ (31 October 2026).
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