THE GOAL

“There are three things in which a man ought to exercise himself who would be wise and good. . . . The object of the third [the Discipline of Assent] is that we may not be deceived, and may not judge at random, and generally it is concerned with assent. . . . The third department is appropriate only for those who are already making progress, and is concerned with giving certainty in the very things we have spoken of, so that even in sleep or drunkenness or melancholy no untested impression may come upon us unawares.”

Epictetus, Discourses III, 2.1–5