Scepticism is the truth. For, after all, men before Jesus Christ did not know either where they were or if they were great or little. And those who said one or the other knew nothing about it, and guessed without reason and by chance, yet they always erred in excluding one or the other.
Quod ergo ignorantes quæritis, Religio annuntiat vobis.
If Epictetus had seen the way with certainty he would have said to men: "You follow a false road"; he shows that there is another, but he does not lead there; it is the way of willing what God wills; Jesus Christ alone leads thither, via, veritas.
Jesus Christ did nothing but teach men that they were lovers of themselves, that they were slaves, blind, sick, miserable, and sinners, that he would deliver them, enlighten, bless, and heal them, that this would be brought about by hatred of self, and by following him through poverty and the death of the cross.
An artisan who speaks of riches, a lawyer who speaks of war, or of kingship, etc., but the rich man rightly speaks of riches, a king speaks slightingly of a great gift he has just made, and God rightly speaks of God.
Hosea iii.
Isaiah xlii, xlviii., liv., lx., lxi. The last verse. I have foretold it long since, that they might know that it is I.
Jaddus to Alexander.
Man is not worthy of God, but he is not incapable of being rendered worthy.
It is unworthy of God to unite himself to miserable man, but it is not unworthy of God to raise him from his misery.