ABSTRACT
Epictetus's summary of Stoicism, as reported by Aulus Gellius since to achieve the greatest possible painlessness in life he generally sacrifices lively joys and pleasures, mindful of Aristotle's. The Latin translation, as throughout, added in. Therefore, the future is always borrowing from the present; rather than this, with the frivolous fool, the present borrows from the future, which, thereby impoverished, ends in bankruptcy. With the former, reason must of course usually play the part of an ill-humored mentor and incessantly demand renunciations, without being able to promise anything in return but a fairly painless existence. One can therefore also see Stoicism as a spiritual dietetic, in accordance with which, just as people inure the body to the influences of wind and weather, to adversity and exertion, they also have to inure the spirit to misfortune, danger, loss, injustice, guile, treachery, arrogance, and foolishness in human affairs.
