Quote by Epictetus: “Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”

You cannot control everything that happens to you, but you can always control your response and your effort. Stoicism teaches that peace comes from focusing energy on what you can actually influence and accepting what you can't. Distinguishing between the two is wisdom.

Epictetus taught in Nicopolis in northwestern Greece in the late first and early second centuries CE, having been freed from slavery in Rome. The Roman Empire under Domitian and later Trajan was politically volatile, and Stoic philosophy offered a framework for maintaining inner stability amid external chaos and unpredictable power.

Greek Stoic philosopher born into slavery in the Roman Empire who became one of the most influential moral philosophers of antiquity. His teachings, recorded by his student Arrian in the Enchiridion and the Discourses, form the practical core of Stoic philosophy.