Each man’s body is a measure for his property, just as the foot is a measure for his shoe. If, then, you abide by this principle, you will maintain the proper measure, but if you go beyond it, you cannot help but fall headlong over a precipice, as it were, in the end. So also in the case of your shoe; if once you go beyond the foot, you get first a gilded shoe, then a purple one, then an embroidered one. For once you go beyond the measure there is no limit.

Commentary

Epictetus seems to be saying that we should adapt our desires to suit the needs of our bodies. This is what the Stoics mean by moderation or desiring externals within reasonable bounds. There’s a natural limit to what’s healthy. This sounds almost like an allusion to the famous saying of Protagoras: “Man is the measure of all things.”

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