Only the educated are free.
Genuine
Yes. In Discourses (108), Book 2, chapter 1, section 22; George Long translation, Book II, I, “That Confidence (Courage) Is Not Inconsistent with Caution”.
Found word for word by program in the Greek original and in George Long’s English translation (1877).
The wording people share comes from a later translation; Long’s words are underlined below.
- Work
- Discourses (Διατριβαί), 108
- Where
- Book 2, chapter 1, section 22; George Long translation, Book II, I, “That Confidence (Courage) Is Not Inconsistent with Caution”
- Found at
- Paragraph 148 of the Greek text, 202 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
[…] If this does not satisfy (please) you, the door is open: if it does, bear (with things). For the door ought to be open for all occasions; and so we have no trouble.
[…] [20] πρὸς πάντα γὰρ ἠνοῖχθαι δεῖ τὴν θύραν· καὶ πρᾶγμα οὐκ ἔχομεν.
What then is the fruit of these opinions? It is that which ought to be the most noble and the most becoming to those who are really educated: release from perturbation, release from fear, freedom. For in these matters we must not believe the many, who say that free persons only ought to be educated, but we should rather believe the philosophers, who say that the educated only are free.1 “How is this?” In this manner: Is freedom anything else than the power of living as we choose? “Nothing else.” Tell me then, ye men, do you wish to live in error? “We do not.” No one then who lives in error is free. Do you wish to live in fear? […]
Τίς οὖν τούτων τῶν δογμάτων καρπός; [21] ὅνπερ δεῖ κάλλιστόν τ’ εἶναι καὶ πρεπωδέστατον τοῖς τῷ ὄντι παιδευομένοις, ἀταραξία ἀφοβία ἐλευθερία. [22] οὐ γὰρ τοῖς πολλοῖς περὶ τούτων πιστευτέον, οἳ λέγουσιν μόνοις ἐξεῖναι παιδεύεσθαι τοῖς ἐλευθέροις, ἀλλὰ τοῖς φιλοσόφοις μᾶλλον, οἳ λέγουσι μόνους τοὺς παιδευθέντας ἐλευθέρους εἶναι. [23] — Πῶς τοῦτο; — Οὕτως· νῦν ἄλλο τί ἐστιν ἐλευθερία ἢ τὸ ἐξεῖναι ὡς βουλόμεθα διεξάγειν; “οὐδέν.” λέγετε δή μοι, ὦ ἄνθρωποι, βούλεσθε ζῆν ἁμαρτάνοντες; “οὐ βουλόμεθα.” οὐδεὶς τοίνυν ἁμαρτάνων ἐλεύθερός ἐστιν. […]
Well have I not read to you, and do you not know what I was doing? In what? […]
Διὰ τοῦτο λέγω πολλάκις “ [29] ταῦτα μελετᾶτε καὶ ταῦτα πρόχειρα ἔχετε, πρὸς τίνα δεῖ τεθαῤῥηκέναι καὶ πρὸς τίνα εὐλαβῶς διακεῖσθαι, ὅτι πρὸς τὰ ἀπροαίρετα θαῤῥεῖν, εὐλαβεῖσθαι τὰ προαιρετικά” [30] . […]
What then, did not Socrates write? And who wrote so much?—But how? […]
[34] Καὶ νῦν καιροῦ καλοῦντος ἐκεῖνα δείξεις ἀπελθὼν καὶ ἀναγνώσῃ καὶ ἐμπερπερεύσῃ; “ἰδοῦ, πῶς διαλόγους συντίθημι. […]
Where it comes from
The popular form condenses the end of the sentence: the Greek says the philosophers hold “that only the educated are free” (μόνους τοὺς παιδευθέντας ἐλευθέρους εἶναι), which Long renders “the educated only are free”; Wikiquote gives “Only the educated are free” as a variant translation.
The scene
The discourse defends the Stoic paradox that one can be both cautious and confident: cautious about what is in our power (our judgments), confident about what is not (death, pain, exile). The fruit of these opinions, Epictetus says, is freedom from perturbation and fear; he then sets the philosophers’ view against that of ‘the many’, who say that only the free ought to be educated, turning it on its head and argues that freedom is the power to live as we choose, which no one in error, fear or sorrow has.
What it means
Freedom is an inner state, not a legal one: only a person trained to judge rightly, and so free of fear and false opinion, is really free.
Often misread
Often read as praise of schooling or of formal education in general. “Educated” here means trained in Stoic judgment, and the free are those released from fear and error; Epictetus, a former slave, is reversing the legal sense of “free”.
Also shared as
- Another public-domain translationwho say, that the Well-educated alone are free. Elizabeth Carter’s translation (Wikisource transcription of the edition it dates 1759). Where it was seen
Topics
Related quotes
- Of things some are in our power, and others are not.
- More law, less justice. Marcus Tullius Cicero
- Virtue is a mean state; but in reference to the chief good and to excellence it is the highest state possible. Aristotle
- Power without love is reckless and abusive, and that love without power is sentimental and anemic. Martin Luther King Jr.
- Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts. (misattributed) Albert Einstein
Sources
- en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Epictetus (Discourses, Book II, II.1.22)
- 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 2, chapter 1, section 22; George Long translation, Book II, I, “That Confidence (Courage) Is Not Inconsistent with Caution”, translated by George Long (1877). Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/only-the-educated-are-free/ (31 October 2026).
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