MED. 8.33Discipline of desire
George Long · 1862EN · Long

Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.

Original · ancient Greek

Ἀτύφως μὲν λαβεῖν, εὐλύτως δὲ ἀφεῖναι.

Leopold · Teubner 1908
Commentary

Two hands for the external. A five-word maxim on how to hold the indifferent: "receive without conceit (ἀτύφως), release without clinging (εὐλύτως)." Both adverbs aim at one passion: appropriation. ἄτυφος ("without τῦφος," without the fumes of vanity) — not to swell on receiving health, wealth, honour; εὔλυτος ("easily loosed") — to let them go without a wrench when fortune takes them back. One disposition serves both the coming and the going.

DOGMAA loan, not a property. Behind the maxim is the Stoic view of the external as given on loan: not "mine" but entrusted and to be returned (cf. the grateful departure; 7.56 — to reckon oneself already dead, the rest a surplus; 10.14 — one who has entrusted himself to nature). The practical mechanism is the reserve-clause (ὑπεξαίρεσις): to reach for the external "with a reservation," knowing it is returnable (5.20). Rogovin's "do not exalt yourself … and do not grumble" rightly unfolds the pair ἀτύφως/εὐλύτως through the two passions — the pride of possession and the grief of loss. There are no term-lemmata in the text. The governing discipline is desire (not to cleave to what comes and goes).

DisciplineDiscipline of desire
Record added2026-07-16
Statuspublished
Discipline of desire

George Long · 1862· EN · Long

Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance; and be ready to let it go.

Original · ancient Greek

Ἀτύφως μὲν λαβεῖν, εὐλύτως δὲ ἀφεῖναι.

Leopold · Teubner 1908
Related1
Commentary

Two hands for the external. A five-word maxim on how to hold the indifferent: "receive without conceit (ἀτύφως), release without clinging (εὐλύτως)." Both adverbs aim at one passion: appropriation. ἄτυφος ("without τῦφος," without the fumes of vanity) — not to swell on receiving health, wealth, honour; εὔλυτος ("easily loosed") — to let them go without a wrench when fortune takes them back. One disposition serves both the coming and the going.

DOGMAA loan, not a property. Behind the maxim is the Stoic view of the external as given on loan: not "mine" but entrusted and to be returned (cf. the grateful departure; 7.56 — to reckon oneself already dead, the rest a surplus; 10.14 — one who has entrusted himself to nature). The practical mechanism is the reserve-clause (ὑπεξαίρεσις): to reach for the external "with a reservation," knowing it is returnable (5.20). Rogovin's "do not exalt yourself … and do not grumble" rightly unfolds the pair ἀτύφως/εὐλύτως through the two passions — the pride of possession and the grief of loss. There are no term-lemmata in the text. The governing discipline is desire (not to cleave to what comes and goes).

DisciplineDiscipline of desire
Record added2026-07-16
Statuspublished