Virtue and progress

A Selection from the Discourses of Epictetus with the Encheiridion primary

Epictetus derives moral progress from virtue: happiness comes from not getting what you desire and not falling into what you avoid, so improvement should focus on desire, aversion, pursuit, avoidance, and assent.

and malignant man than a fox, or some other more wretched and meaner animal? See then and take care that you do not become some one of these miserable things. OF PROGRESS OR IMPROVEMENT.—He who is making progress, having learned from philosophers that desire means the desire of good things, and aversion means aversion from bad things; having learned too that happiness and tranquillity are not attainable by man other…