Quote checked against the text
“And do you feel no shame in handing over your own mind to be confused and mystified by anyone who happens to verbally attack you?” — attributed to Epictetus
In substance, yes; in this wording, no. The idea is at Enchiridion, XXVIII; Elizabeth Carter’s 1758 edition is quoted below, and the sentence as it circulates is not this translator’s.
In substance, yes; not in these words. This is Enchiridion XXVIII. Carter, in 1758, gives the two sentences as: “If a Person had delivered up your Body to any one, whom he met in his Way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no Shame in delivering up your own Mind to be disconcerted, and confounded by any one, who happens to give you ill Language?”
The modern wording, “handing over your own mind to be confused and mystified by anyone who happens to verbally attack you”, returns no hit in Carter or in Long’s 1877 text; the fragment “delivered up your body” finds the chapter at once, and “put your body in the power” finds it again in Long, who prints it as chapter XXVIII too. Same two sentences, same order, same contrast between the body and the mind; only the translator changes.
So the fair label is paraphrase of Enchiridion XXVIII: the idea and the order of the two sentences are Epictetus’s, the wording is a later translator’s. Neither English edition we hold says “handing over” or “mystified”. It usually travels with its first half, on the body handed to a stranger met on the way.
What we searched
Each fragment is searched, normalized, in every file of the editions below. The block is the search and its result, replayed at each build.
The wording was searched in Carter 1758 (Enchiridion, 52 chapters) and Long 1877 (a selection of the Discourses, without book or chapter numbers, plus the Enchiridion).
$ node tools/seo/grep-quote.mjs --lang en --author epictete "gave your body" "handing over your own mind" "delivered up your body" "put your body in the power"
Elizabeth Carter, 1758 — Enchiridion · 52 chapters (Carter’s numbering) (1 file)
"gave your body" 0 hits
"handing over your own mind" 0 hits
"delivered up your body" 1 hit
l. 140 …a Person had delivered up your Body to any one,…
"put your body in the power" 0 hits
George Long, 1877 — Discourses (selection) and Enchiridion · a selection of the Discourses, without book or chapter numbers, plus the Enchiridion (1 file)
"gave your body" 0 hits
"handing over your own mind" 0 hits
"delivered up your body" 0 hits
"put your body in the power" 1 hit
l. 4915 …was intending to put your body in the power of any man
$ node tools/seo/grep-quote.mjs --lang fr --author epictete "au premier qui t’insulte" "livrer ton esprit" "livrait ton corps"
Jean-Marie Guyau, 1875 — Manuel · 53 chapters (modern numbering) (1 file)
"au premier qui t’insulte" 0 hits
"livrer ton esprit" 0 hits
"livrait ton corps" 1 hit
l. 445 Si quelqu’un livrait ton corps au premier qui…
Victor Courdaveaux, 1862 — Entretiens · 9 chapters of the Discourses (I, 1 · I, 15 · I, 18 · I, 24 · I, 25 · II, 13 · II, 18 · III, 16 · III, 24) (9 files)
"au premier qui t’insulte" 0 hits
"livrer ton esprit" 0 hits
"livrait ton corps" 0 hitsThis sentence appears 4 times in the list of circulating quotes we collected on 2026-08-09.
What the text says
If a Person had delivered up your Body to any one, whom he met in his Way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no Shame in delivering up your own Mind to be disconcerted, and confounded by any one, who happens to give you ill Language?
How to cite
The idea, not this wording, is at:
Epictetus, Enchiridion, XXVIII (trans. Elizabeth Carter, 1758)
Other sentences checked
All sentences attributed to EpictetusAll quote checks
Every passage in Stoïque carries its reference. The 39 passages of Epictetus are in Stoic+, each with its locator.