In the first century CE, the Stoic philosopher Epictetus taught a form of freedom that no empire could take away. Born a slave in the Roman world, he became one of history’s great teachers of inner discipline. His central insight, written in the Enchiridion, divided life into two realms: what depends on us, and what does not. Our judgments, choices, and actions belong to us. Fortune, health, and reputation do not. To confuse these, he said, is to hand our peace to fate. True freedom begins with