Ten Fake Quotes Misattributed To Stoic Philosopher Epictetus | Gregory Sadler Calling Them Out!

[@lotuschamp7796]

"Do not trust Internet quotes" -Epictetus

[@sunnydforfree7145]

Lol funny how the only Internet quote I can trust is the one telling me to do otherwise

[@Pleebian94]

Seen so many guys from Brazilian Jiu Jitsu groups erroneously misquote Stoic Philosophers. I often sit there with a suspicion they do not even read Philosophical Classics, only skim through what they heard, seen, or read off of the internet, than post onto whatever platform they use for likes and validation. They are not the only ones though, even on KZbin there are channels that grossly misinterpret philosophers.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yes, there's a lot of that mindless recycling quotes going on out there

[@nooneinparticular5256]

Okay, so the way I remembered it for chapter 11 was: "A man who has yet to learn blames others A man who is in the process of learning blames himself A man who has learned blames nothing." I must have gotten wires crossed, because I misattributed that to Zeno.

[@GregoryBSadler]

No reason to remember it. You can find Epictetus' text online easily, in both English translations and the original Greek.

[@ThePeaceableKingdom]

As Voltaire said, "A philosopher is only as good as his cat videos." Captain Kirk never said, "Beam me up, Scotty" and James Cagney never said, "You dirty rat." But they capture the feel of their attribution and are some things that they could have said. Sometimes a spurious quote is a mangled mash-up, but does capture the essence of its purported source. More often though, it's just some words someone made up and then went thumbing for a source to hang them on. The ideal source is well respected but seldom actually read, at least in full. (Franklin, Lincoln and Churchill are classic examples.) No one is going to quote a spurious Beatles lyric because everyone knows the Beatles' songs. But if it's attributed to Theognis or Marcus Aurelius, and through the added veil of multiple translations, ya think, "Yeah, well, maybe he did say that..."

[@GregoryBSadler]

None of these are really cases of "captur[ing] the essence" of Epictetus, I'm afraid

[@dedicatedspuddler7641]

Thanks for a great video.

[@GregoryBSadler]

You're welcome

[@JBBell]

I’m a fan of Sharon Lebell, and I can’t speak for her, but I don’t think she’d support these quotes of her glosses getting attributed directly to Epictetus. Whether you like her work or not, she’s never been shy about her revisionist tendencies.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yes, I can't imagine she'd want people mindlessly recycling quotes from her book as if they were directly from Epictetus

[@zhubajie6940]

4:24 I assume you mean Zeno of Citium not Zeno of Elea (or the many other Zenos for that matter).

[@GregoryBSadler]

That goes without saying, given the context, buddy

[@DaveReynolds-y3v]

Not surprising that these come from the internet community. The business model for much of social media is patterned after dynamics of gossip. Gossip can be malignant, benign or even helpful. Perhaps these are the product of the enthusiasm of finding a philosophy you can relate to and offers guidance.

[@GregoryBSadler]

Yes, quotes uncritically sourced proliferate online. Before that. it was for about a century and a half in quotes books

[@DaveReynolds-y3v]

@@GregoryBSadler Thanks for the quick response, I've seen something similar in words that have had their definitions repurposed.

[@DaveReynolds-y3v]

A friend of mine coined a term for words that end up with a meaning that is diametrically opposite of its implied meaning, "contra-logism".

[@Peter-oy6qw]

I kinda hate how mainstream and popular this philosophy has gotten. Now when you tell people you read stoic works, they think of you as some emotionless sociopathic asshole instead of someone who has a genuine love for the philosophy

[@GregoryBSadler]

I guess you can show them over time by your responses and behavior that there's a difference between stoicism and Stoicism

[@OurBrainHurtsALot]

Why would Epictetus referenced freaking PILOTS in his writings?

[@GregoryBSadler]

Pilot means the person who directs a ship. Air pilot came from that.