The Best Epictetus Translation (Same Passage, Compared)
The best Epictetus translation depends almost entirely on which Epictetus you’re reading. The Enchiridion and the Discourses are different problems. The Enchiridion is 52 short chapters; almost any translator can survive it. The Discourses runs to four books of often-meandering lecture transcript, and prose quality is the difference between finishing and abandoning it in week two.
Three translations dominate: Robin Hard (Oxford World’s Classics), Robert Dobbin (Penguin Classics), and the old public-domain Elizabeth Carter (available free everywhere). Here’s the same passage in all three so you can make the call yourself.
The test passage: Discourses 1.1, the opening argument
This is Epictetus at his most structured — dividing the world into what is “up to us” and what isn’t. If a translator stumbles here, they’ll stumble everywhere.
Carter (1758, public domain):
“Of things, some are in our power, and others are not. In our power are opinion, aim, desire, aversion, and, in one word, whatever are our own actions. Not in our power are body, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.”
Serviceable. Clean. A little airless. “Aim” for hormē is an odd choice that hasn’t aged well, and the repeated “in one word” construction feels mechanical. You can read it, but you won’t enjoy it.
Dobbin (2008, Penguin):
“Some things are in our control and others are not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.”
Cleaner than Carter, almost identical in structure. “Pursuit” for hormē is a modest improvement. Dobbin’s Discourses (Penguin, 2008) covers only Books 1 and 2 — worth knowing before you buy, because you’ll need something else for the second half.
Hard (2014, Oxford World’s Classics):
“Some things are within our power, while others are not. Within our power are opinion, motivation, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever is of our own doing. Outside our power are our body, our reputation, our estates, and, in a word, whatever is not of our own doing.”
“Motivation” for hormē is defensible and more natural to a modern reader. “Whatever is of our own doing” rather than “whatever are our own actions” has an easier rhythm. Hard is also the only complete Discourses in a modern scholarly translation — which is the end of the argument for serious readers.
The actual recommendation
For the Discourses: Robin Hard, Oxford World’s Classics. Includes all four books plus the Enchiridion and the Fragments, with notes that don’t condescend. This is the one to buy if you’re reading one Epictetus translation for the rest of your life.
For the Enchiridion alone: The Dobbin Penguin holds up nicely, and the introduction is excellent. Sharon Lebell’s Art of Living (HarperOne) is a paraphrase rather than a translation — readable, popular, and not Epictetus. If you want Epictetus’s actual argument rather than a self-help distillation, skip it.
Carter for free: If you want to start today without spending anything, Carter on Project Gutenberg is fine for the Enchiridion. For the Discourses, the prose drag accumulates across four books and becomes a genuine obstacle.
Why Dobbin is good but not quite enough
Dobbin’s 2008 Penguin is well-regarded, and for Books 1 and 2 of the Discourses it’s genuinely sharp. The introductory material is strong. But the coverage gap is a real problem: Books 3 and 4 aren’t included, and Dobbin’s separate Penguin Enchiridion (2008) is a different purchase. You end up paying twice and still owning half a work.
Hard gives you everything in one volume. For most readers that’s decisive.
A note on the Enchiridion versus the Discourses
If you haven’t decided which one to read first, that’s worth settling before you buy anything. The short version: the Enchiridion is where most people should start; the Discourses is where Epictetus actually breathes. The longer answer is here.
And if you’re placing Epictetus inside a broader Stoic reading plan — after Seneca, before or alongside Marcus Aurelius — the full Stoic reading list has an order that makes the progression feel less like a syllabus and more like a conversation between three people who disagreed about more than they admitted.
Buy Hard. Read the passage comparisons above first if you want to verify that against your own ear.