Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things.
Genuine
Yes. In Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 5 (opening clause); George Long translation, chapter V.
Found word for word by program in the Greek original and in George Long’s English translation.
- Work
- Enchiridion (Handbook) (Ἐγχειρίδιον), 107
- Where
- Section 5 (opening clause); George Long translation, chapter V
- Found at
- Paragraph 15 of the Greek text, 12 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
[…] It was not this only that I intended, but I intended also to maintain my will in a way conformable to nature; but I shall not maintain it so if I am vexed at what happens.
Ὅταν ἅπτεσθαί τινος ἔργου μέλλῃς, ὑπομίμνῃσκε σεαυτόν, ὁποῖόν ἐστι τὸ ἔργον. ἐὰν λουσόμενος ἀπίῃς, πρόβαλλε σεαυτῷ τὰ γινόμενα ἐν βαλανείῳ, τοὺς ἀποῤῥαίνοντας, τοὺς ἐγκρουομένους, τοὺς λοιδοροῦντας, τοὺς κλέπτοντας. καὶ οὕτως ἀσφαλέστερον ἅψῃ τοῦ ἔργου, ἐὰν ἐπιλέγῃς εὐθὺς ὅτι «λούσασθαι θέλω καὶ τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ προαίρεσιν κατὰ φύσιν ἔχουσαν τηρῆσαι». καὶ ὡσαύτως ἐφ’ ἑκάστου ἔργου. οὕτω γὰρ ἄν τι πρὸς τὸ λούσασθαι γένηται ἐμποδών, πρόχειρον ἔσται διότι «ἀλλ’ οὐ τοῦτο ἤθελον μόνον, ἀλλὰ καὶ τὴν ἐμαυτοῦ προαίρεσιν κατὰ φύσιν ἔχουσαν τηρῆσαι: οὐ τηρήσω δέ, ἐὰν ἀγανακτῶ πρὸς τὰ γινόμενα».
Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things; for example, death is nothing terrible, for if it were it would have seemed so to Socrates; for the opinion about death that it is terrible, is the terrible thing. […]
Ταράσσει τοὺς ἀνθρώπους οὐ τὰ πράγματα, ἀλλὰ τὰ περὶ τῶν πραγμάτων δόγματα: οἷον ὁ θάνατος οὐδὲν δεινόν ἐπεὶ καὶ Σωκράτει ἂν ἐφαίνετο, ἀλλὰ τὸ δόγμα τὸ περὶ τοῦ θανάτου, διότι δεινόν, ἐκεῖνο τὸ δεινόν ἐστιν. ὅταν οὖν ἐμποδιζώμεθα ἢ ταρασσώμεθα ἢ λυπώμεθα, μηδέποτε ἄλλον αἰτιώμεθα, ἀλλ’ ἑαυτούς, τοῦτ’ ἔστι τὰ ἑαυτῶν δόγματα. ἀπαιδεύτου ἔργον τὸ ἄλλοις ἐγκαλεῖν, ἐφ’ οἷς αὐτὸς πράσσει κακῶς: ἠργμένου παιδεύεσθαι τὸ ἑαυτῷ: πεπαιδευμένου τὸ μήτε ἄλλῳ μήτε ἑαυτῷ.
The scene
The Handbook explains distress through judgments, using death and Socrates as its example: what frightens us is the judgment that death is terrible. The following sentences shift attention from blaming others to examining one’s own opinions. The section ends by distinguishing the beginner who blames himself from the fully instructed person who blames neither himself nor anyone else.
What it means
What we think an event means helps determine how it troubles us. Examining that judgment is central to Epictetus’s practice.
Often misread
Taken alone, the maxim can sound like an instruction to blame a sufferer or to deny bodily pain. Its subject is evaluative judgment, and this very section ends with the instructed person blaming neither others nor himself; it is not a warrant for condemning distressed people.
Also shared as
- The form on posters and social mediaIt’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. A modern restatement of Enchiridion 5 credited to Epictetus on quote sites and in popular books; no such sentence is in the Handbook or the Discourses (searched “react” in the Long texts). Sometimes extended with a second sentence about choosing how we respond to external circumstances, whose source was not traced. Where it was seen
Topics
Related quotes
- Of things some are in our power, and others are not.
- If thou art pained by any external thing, it is not this thing that disturbs thee, but thy own judgement about it. And it is in thy power to wipe out this judgement now. (paraphrase) Marcus Aurelius
- Nature’s wealth at once has its bounds and is easy to procure; but the wealth of vain fancies recedes to an infinite distance. Epicurus
- The just man enjoys the greatest peace of mind, while the unjust is full of the utmost disquietude. Epicurus
- Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; remember that what you now have was once among the things you only hoped for. Epicurus
Sources
- gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10661/pg10661.txt (George Long translation; corpus source, chapter V)
- el.wikisource.org/wiki/Εγχειρίδιον (Greek corpus source, section εʹ)
Cite it
Epictetus, Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 5 (opening clause); George Long translation, chapter V, translated by George Long. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/men-are-disturbed-by-their-opinions/ (31 October 2026).
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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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