New Delhi, May 24 -- Epictetus, born around 50 CE in Hierapolis in Phrygia, was a Greek Stoic philosopher whose life itself embodied the discipline he later taught. He spent part of his life enslaved in Rome, studied Stoicism under Musonius Rufus, and after gaining freedom became a teacher of philosophy. When Emperor Domitian expelled philosophers from Rome, Epictetus moved to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece, where he founded a respected school; his teachings survive mainly through the Discourses and Enchiridion, recorded by his student Arrian.

"It is difficulties that show what men are."- Epictetus

The line appears in Discourses, Book 1, Chapter 24, in a section titled "How one should contend against difficulties." In the fuller passa...