Full Idea
Progress is when any of you turns to his own faculty of choice, working at it and perfecting it, so as to bring it fully into harmony with nature; elevated, free, unrestrained, unhindered, faithful, self-respecting.
Gist of Idea
We make progress when we improve and naturalise our choices, asserting their freedom
Source
Epictetus (The Discourses [c.56], 1.04.18)
Book Reference
Epictetus: 'The Discourses, The Handbook, Fragments', ed/tr. Gill,C [Everyman 1995], p.13
A Reaction
[See also Disc.3.5.7] Rationality is the stoic concept of being in 'harmony with nature'. It appears (from reading Frede) that this may be the FIRST EVER reference to free will. Note the very rhetorical way in which it is presented.
Related Idea
Idea 23328 The essences of good and evil are in dispositions to choose [Epictetus]