"The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing"
About this Quote
Wisdom, for Epictetus, is less a sparkle of insight than a practiced spine. “Bearing and forbearing” sounds simple because it is meant to be portable: a two-word toolkit you can carry into exile, illness, insult, or sudden good fortune without needing a library to consult. The pair works because it splits resilience into two different arts. Bearing is the capacity to take what arrives - pain, loss, inconvenience - without adding a second injury in the form of panic, self-pity, or grievance. Forbearing is restraint aimed outward: not retaliating, not lashing out, not letting another person’s provocation draft you into their chaos.
The subtext is quietly radical: the wise person is not the one who wins arguments, accumulates status, or even feels serene. It’s the one who keeps agency where Epictetus insists it belongs - in the judgments we choose. Everything else (health, reputation, other people’s behavior) sits in the category Stoics treat as not fully ours. “Bearing” accepts that boundary; “forbearing” defends it. Together they describe a disciplined refusal to outsource your inner life to circumstance.
Context sharpens the stakes. Epictetus was born enslaved and later expelled from Rome; he taught philosophy as training for living under power you cannot control. His formula is not polite self-help but a survival ethic. It’s also a critique of elite Roman masculinity: strength isn’t domination, it’s self-command. In a culture that prized public face and quick vengeance, he frames wisdom as the ability to absorb impact and deny the impulse to strike back.
The subtext is quietly radical: the wise person is not the one who wins arguments, accumulates status, or even feels serene. It’s the one who keeps agency where Epictetus insists it belongs - in the judgments we choose. Everything else (health, reputation, other people’s behavior) sits in the category Stoics treat as not fully ours. “Bearing” accepts that boundary; “forbearing” defends it. Together they describe a disciplined refusal to outsource your inner life to circumstance.
Context sharpens the stakes. Epictetus was born enslaved and later expelled from Rome; he taught philosophy as training for living under power you cannot control. His formula is not polite self-help but a survival ethic. It’s also a critique of elite Roman masculinity: strength isn’t domination, it’s self-command. In a culture that prized public face and quick vengeance, he frames wisdom as the ability to absorb impact and deny the impulse to strike back.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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