This is George Long's English translation (London, 1890), taken unaltered from the Perseus Digital Library and used here under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 licence. Long's own footnotes are kept, at the foot of each discourse.
The Discourses are the lessons Epictetus, a freed slave and Stoic teacher, gave at Nicopolis. His pupil Arrian put them into writing. Four of the original eight books survive. The theme is always the same, approached from every angle: what is in our power and what is not, and what freedom is. Judgement, impulse, desire, and aversion are in our power; the body, possessions, reputation, and public office are not. On this distinction Epictetus builds a demanding, yet deeply human, conception of freedom.
Book I
Discourse 1Of the things which are in our power, and not in our power32 sections Discourse 2How a man on every occasion can maintain his proper character37 sections Discourse 3How a man should proceed from the principle of god being the father of all men to the rest9 sections Discourse 4Of progress or improvement32 sections Discourse 5Against the academics10 sections Discourse 6Of Providence43 sections Discourse 7Of the use of sophistical arguments and hypothetical and the like32 sections Discourse 8That the faculties are not safe to the uninstructed16 sections Discourse 9How from the fact that we are akin to God a man may proceed to the consequences34 sections Discourse 10Against those who eagerly seek preferment at Rome13 sections Discourse 11Of natural affection40 sections Discourse 12Of contentment35 sections Discourse 13How everything may be done acceptably to the gods5 sections Discourse 14That the deity oversees all things17 sections Discourse 15What philosophy promises8 sections Discourse 16Of Providence21 sections Discourse 17That the logical art is necessary29 sections Discourse 18That we ought not to be angry with the errors (faults) of others23 sections Discourse 19How we should behave to tyrants29 sections Discourse 20About reason, how it contemplates itself19 sections Discourse 21Against those who wish to be admired4 sections Discourse 22On praecognitions21 sections Discourse 23Against Epicurus10 sections Discourse 24How we should struggle with circumstances20 sections Discourse 25On the same33 sections Discourse 26What is the law of life18 sections Discourse 27In how many ways appearances exist, and what aids we should provide against them21 sections Discourse 28That we ought not to be angry with men; and what are the small and the great things among men33 sections Discourse 29On constancy (or firmness)66 sections Discourse 30What we ought to have ready in difficult circumstances7 sections
Book II
Discourse 1That confidence (courage) is not inconsistent with caution40 sections Discourse 2Of tranquillity (freedom from perturbation)26 sections Discourse 3To those who recommend persons to philosophers5 sections Discourse 4Against a person who had once been detected in adultery11 sections Discourse 5How magnanimity is consistent with care29 sections Discourse 6Of indifference27 sections Discourse 7How we ought to use divination14 sections Discourse 8What is the nature (ἡ οὐσία) of the Good29 sections Discourse 9That when we cannot fulfil that which the character of a man promises, we assume the character of a philosopher22 sections Discourse 10How we may discover the duties of life from names30 sections Discourse 11What the beginning of philosophy is25 sections Discourse 12Of disputation or discussion25 sections Discourse 13On anxiety (solicitude)26 sections Discourse 14To Naso29 sections Discourse 15To or against those who obstinately persist in what they have determined20 sections Discourse 16That we do not strive to use our opinions about good and evil47 sections Discourse 17How we must adapt preconceptions to particular cases40 sections Discourse 18How we should struggle against appearances32 sections Discourse 19Against those who embrace philosophical opinions only in words34 sections Discourse 20Against the Epicureans and Academics37 sections Discourse 21Of inconsistency22 sections Discourse 22On friendship37 sections Discourse 23On the power of speaking47 sections Discourse 24To (or against) a person who was one of those who were not valued (esteemed) by him29 sections Discourse 25That logic is necessary3 sections Discourse 26What is the property of error7 sections
Book III
Discourse 1Of finery in dress45 sections Discourse 2In what a man ought to be exercised who has made proficiency; and that we neglect the chief things18 sections Discourse 3What is the matter on which a good man should be employed, and in what we ought chiefly to practise ourselves22 sections Discourse 4Against a person who showed his partizanship in an unseemly way in a theatre12 sections Discourse 5Against those who on account of sickness go away home19 sections Discourse 6Miscellaneous10 sections Discourse 7To the administrator of the free cities who was an Epicurean36 sections Discourse 8How we must exercise ourselves against appearances (φαντασίας)7 sections Discourse 9To a certain rhetorician who was going up to Rome on a suit22 sections Discourse 10In what manner we ought to bear sickness20 sections Discourse 11Certain miscellaneous matters6 sections Discourse 12About exercise17 sections Discourse 13What solitude is, and what kind of person a solitary man is23 sections Discourse 14Certain miscellaneous matters14 sections Discourse 15That we ought to proceed with circumspection to every thing14 sections Discourse 16That we ought with caution to enter into familiar intercourse with men16 sections Discourse 17On Providence9 sections Discourse 18That we ought not to be disturbed by any news9 sections Discourse 19What is the condition of a common kind of man and of a philosopher6 sections Discourse 20That we can derive advantage from all external things19 sections Discourse 21Against those who readily come to the profession of sophists24 sections Discourse 22About Cynism109 sections Discourse 23To those who read and discuss for the sake of ostentation38 sections Discourse 24That we ought not to be moved by a desire of those things which are not in our power118 sections Discourse 25To those who fall off (desist) from their purpose10 sections Discourse 26To those who fear want39 sections
Book IV
Discourse 1About freedom177 sections Discourse 2On familiar intimacy10 sections Discourse 3What things we should exchange for other things12 sections Discourse 4To those who are desirous of passing life in tranquillity48 sections Discourse 5Against the quarrelsome and ferocious37 sections Discourse 6Against those who lament over being pitied38 sections Discourse 7On freedom from fear41 sections Discourse 8Against those who hastily rush into the use of the philosophic dress43 sections Discourse 9To a person who had been changed to a character of shamelessness18 sections Discourse 10What things we ought to despise, and what things we ought to value36 sections Discourse 11About purity (cleanliness)36 sections Discourse 12On attention21 sections Discourse 13Against or to those who readily tell their own affairs24 sections