Epictetus was born a slave, and freedom is the subject he returns to more than any other. His answer is blunt: you are free when nothing outside you can hinder what you want, and that only happens when you want what is in your own power. Every quote below is from Epictetus, with its chapter so you can check it, in public-domain translations by P. E. Matheson and W. A. Oldfather.
For his wider teaching, start with our Epictetus quotes guide. This page is only about freedom.
How Epictetus defined freedom
"That man is free, who lives as he wishes, who is proof against compulsion and hindrance and violence, whose impulses are untrammelled, who gets what he wills to get and avoids what he wills to avoid."
Discourses 4.1
"He is free, whom none can hinder, the man who can deal with things as he wishes. But the man who can be hindered or compelled or fettered or driven into anything against his will, is a slave."
Discourses 4.1
"Then whenever a man can be hindered or compelled by another at will, assert with confidence that he is not free."
Discourses 4.1
Discourse 4.1 is a long argument with a Roman senator who insists he cannot be a slave because nobody ever bought him. Epictetus keeps asking the same question: who can stop you getting what you want?
Who is not free, by his measure
"No bad man then lives as he would, and so no bad man is free."
Discourses 4.1
"Whensoever then you see men unhappy, miserable, mourning, you may declare with confidence that they are not free."
Discourses 4.1
"Therefore when you see a man cringing to another or flattering him against his true opinion, you may say with confidence that he too is not free, and not only if he does it for a paltry dinner, but even if he does it for a province or a consulship."
Discourses 4.1
"Yet who will call a lion like that 'free'? The softer he lives, the worse is his slavery."
Discourses 4.1, on a lion kept tame and well fed in a cage
"What is it then which makes man his own master and free from hindrance? Wealth does not make him so, nor a consulship, nor a province, nor a kingdom; we must find something else."
Discourses 4.1
The flattery line is the uncomfortable one. By this test, a well-paid person who agrees with the boss against their own judgement is less free than they look.
Where freedom actually sits
"Things in our power are by nature free, unhindered, untrammelled; things not in our power are weak, servile, subject to hindrance, dependent on others."
Enchiridion 1
"Each man's master is the man who has authority over what he wishes or does not wish, to secure the one or to take away the other. Let him then who wishes to be free not wish for anything or avoid anything that depends on others; or else he is bound to be a slave."
Enchiridion 14
"It is not possible that that which is by nature free should be disturbed or thwarted by anything but itself. But it is a man's own judgements that disturb him."
Discourses 1.19.7 to 8
"For if you are willing to keep guard over those things which are under your direct authority and by nature free, and if you are satisfied with them, what else do you care about?"
Discourses 2.2.3
"Purify your judgements, and see that nothing that is not your own is attached to you or clings to you, that nothing shall give you pain if it is torn from you."
Discourses 4.1
"'Exile?' Wherever I go, it will be well with me: for even here it was not the place that made me well off, but my judgements, and these I shall carry away with me, for no one can rob me of them; these alone are my own and cannot be taken away..."
Discourses 4.7
The part of you that Epictetus calls free is your power to judge and choose. We have a separate page on it: prohairesis, the part of you that is free.
Freedom and education
"What, then, is the fruit of these doctrines? ... tranquillity, fearlessness, freedom."
Discourses 2.1.21
"For on these matters we should not trust the multitude, who say, 'Only the free can be educated,' but rather the philosophers, who say, 'Only the educated are free.'"
Discourses 2.1.22
"...no man who is in fear, or sorrow, or turmoil, is free, but whoever is rid of sorrows and fears and turmoils, this man is by the self-same course rid also of slavery."
Discourses 2.1.24
"Only the educated are free" turns round a common saying of his day, that only the free can be educated. By education Epictetus means training your judgements, which has little to do with schooling.
One way to use these
Take the test from Enchiridion 14 into one frustrating moment today. When you feel stuck, ask: who is my master here? Then name the wish that someone else controls, like wanting a colleague's approval or a reply by five o'clock. You may still want it. You just see where your freedom went, and you can decide whether to keep handing it over. If you want to go further, our guide to the dichotomy of control turns the same idea into a daily practice.
Sources
Epictetus, Enchiridion, translated by P. E. Matheson (1916): chapters 1 and 14.
Epictetus, Discourses 4.1 ("On Freedom") and 4.7, translated by P. E. Matheson (1916). Matheson's text has no section numbers, so these are cited by chapter.
Epictetus, Discourses 1.19, 2.1 and 2.2, translated by W. A. Oldfather, Loeb Classical Library, 1925 to 1928, with section numbers.
If you want structured practice, the 7-Day Stoic Challenge is free. Nine audio lessons and a 42-page workbook.