# XCVI explained — Short Works

> Chapter companion for Short Works by Epictetus.

## What happens

The chapter presents a concise, stark principle for evaluating life: quality, defined by virtue and goodness, is decisively more important than mere length of existence.

## Themes in this chapter

### Virtue as the Only Good

The excerpt defines a 'better' life as one of superior quality, implicitly equating 'better' with virtue, and asserts it must be chosen over a longer but 'worse' life, making virtue the sole measure of a life's worth.

## Key lines

> To the longer life and the worse, the shorter life, if it is better, ought by all means to be preferred.

Always choose a shorter, more virtuous life over a longer, less virtuous one.

_Condenses the Stoic valuation of quality (virtue) over quantity (duration) into a direct imperative._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/epictetus_short_works_se/chapters/xcvi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/epictetus_short_works_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/epictetus_short_works_se/chapters