Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.
Genuine
Yes. In Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 8 (complete section); George Long translation, chapter VIII.
Found word for word by program in the Greek original and in George Long’s English translation.
- Work
- Enchiridion (Handbook) (Ἐγχειρίδιον), 107
- Where
- Section 8 (complete section); George Long translation, chapter VIII
- Found at
- Paragraph 21 of the Greek text, 18 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 if the captain should call, run to the ship and leave all those things without regard to them. But if you are old, do not even go far from the ship, lest when you are called you make default.
Καθάπερ ἐν πλῷ τοῦ πλοίου καθορμισθέντος εἰ ἐξέλθοις ὑδρεύσασθαι, ὁδοῦ μὲν πάρεργον καὶ κοχλίδιον ἀναλέξῃ καὶ βολβάριον, τετάσθαι δὲ δεῖ τὴν διάνοιαν ἐπὶ τὸ πλοῖον καὶ συνεχῶς ἐπιστρέφεσθαι, μή ποτε ὁ κυβερνήτης καλέσῃ, κἂν καλέσῃ, πάντα ἐκεῖνα ἀφιέναι, ἵνα μὴ δεδεμένος ἐμβληθῇς ὡς τὰ πρόβατα: οὕτω καὶ ἐν τῷ βίῳ, ἐὰν διδῶται ἀντὶ βολβαρίου καὶ κοχλιδίου γυναικάριον καὶ παιδίον, οὐδὲν κωλύσει: ἐὰν δὲ ὁ κυβερνήτης καλέσῃ, τρέχε ἐπὶ τὸ πλοῖον ἀφεὶς ἐκεῖνα ἅπαντα μηδὲ ἐπιστρεφόμενος. ἐὰν δὲ γέρων ᾖς, μηδὲ ἀπαλλαγῇς ποτε τοῦ πλοίου μακράν, μή ποτε καλοῦντος ἐλλίπῃς.
Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.
Μὴ ζήτει τὰ γινόμενα γίνεσθαι ὡς θέλεις, ἀλλὰ θέλε τὰ γινόμενα ὡς γίνεται καὶ εὐροήσεις.
The scene
This short instruction forms the whole of section 8. It follows the image of life as a voyage on which the captain may suddenly call us back to the ship, requiring us to leave attachments behind. The next section distinguishes illness or lameness, which obstruct the body, from the faculty of choice.
What it means
A tranquil life requires bringing desire into agreement with what happens rather than demanding that events obey desire.
Often misread
This is not advice for making desired outcomes occur through positive thinking. It reverses that proposal: change what you demand of events. Nor does the sentence by itself cancel the practical duties discussed elsewhere in the Handbook, including sharing a friend’s danger in section 32.
Topics
Related quotes
- 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
- Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened. (not found) Dr. Seuss
- 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
- Again, we regard independence of outward things as a great good, not so as in all cases to use little, but so as to be contented with little if we have not much, being honestly persuaded that they have the sweetest enjoyment of luxury who stand least in need of it … Epicurus
- We must remember that the future is neither wholly ours nor wholly not ours, so that neither must we count upon it as quite certain to come nor despair of it as quite certain not to come. Epicurus
Sources
- gutenberg.org/cache/epub/10661/pg10661.txt (George Long translation; corpus source, chapters VII–IX and XXXII)
- el.wikisource.org/wiki/Εγχειρίδιον (Greek corpus source, section ηʹ)
Cite it
Epictetus, Enchiridion (Handbook) (107), Section 8 (complete section); George Long translation, chapter VIII, translated by George Long. Checked at Quotogeny, https://quotogeny.com/q/wish-things-to-be-as-they-are/ (31 October 2026).
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Checked by people
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