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Epictetus · Discourses 8.5

What punishment for those who refuse to accept? To remain what they are. Is someone dissatisfied with solitude? Let him remain alone. With his parents? Then a bad son. With his children? A bad father.

Epictetus, Discourses and Selected Writings (Discourses 8.5)

What this means

The punishment for refusing reality, Epictetus says, is simply to keep being the person who refuses it. The discontented loner stays alone; the resentful son stays a bad son. Character is its own consequence, paid out quietly over a life.

On judgment, fate.

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Discourses and Selected Writings

Epictetus · trans. Robert Dobbin · Penguin Classics

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