Explore the most impactful and insightful quotes and sayings by Epictetus, and enrich your perspective with the wisdom. Share these inspiring Epictetus quotes pictures with your friends on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, or your personal blogs, completely free. Here are the top 579 Epictetus quotes for you to read and share.
We are not disturbed by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens to us. -- Epictetus
Grammar will tell you how to write; but whether to write or not, grammar will not tell. -- Epictetus
What, for instance, does it mean to be insulted? [29] Stand by a rock and insult it, and what have you accomplished? If someone responds to insult like a rock, what has the abuser gained with his invective? If, however, he has his victim's weakness to exploit, then his efforts are worth his while. -- Epictetus
For I am not Eternity, but a human being - a part of the whole, as an hour is part of the day. I must come like the hour, and like the hour must pass! -- Epictetus
Never praise or blame people on common grounds; look to their judgements exclusively. Because that is the determining factor, which makes everyone's actions either good or bad. -- Epictetus
As you think, so you become ... Our busy minds are forever jumping to conclusions, manufacturing and interpreting signs that aren't there. -- Epictetus
The husbandman deals with land; physicians and trainers with the body; the wise man with his own Mind. -- Epictetus
We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope. -- Epictetus
O slavish man! will you not bear with your own brother, who has God for his Father, as being a son from the same stock, and of the same high descent? But if you chance to be placed in some superior station, will you presently set yourself up for a tyrant? -- Epictetus
Adopt new habits yourself: consolidate your principles by putting them into practice. -- Epictetus
Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of men's desires, but by the removal of desire. -- Epictetus
You'd have a better chance persuading someone to change their sexual orientation than reaching people who have rendered themselves so deaf and blind. -- Epictetus
Do not try to seem wise to others. If you want to live a wise life, live it on your own terms and in your own eyes. -- Epictetus
A vulgar man, in any ill that happens to him, blames others; a novice in philosophy blames himself; and a philosopher blames neither, the one nor the other. -- Epictetus
Remember that you must behave in life as at a dinner party. Is anything brought around to you? Put out your hand and take your share with moderation. Does it pass by you? Don't stop it. Is it not yet come? Don't stretch your desire towards it, but wait till it reaches you. -- Epictetus
Do not afflict others with anything that you yourself would not wish to suffer. if you would not like to be a slave, make sure no one is your slave. If you have slaves, you yourself are the greatest slave, for just as freedom is incompatible with slavery, so goodness is incompatible with hypocrisy. -- Epictetus
Don't seek that all that comes about should come about as you wish, but wish that everything that comes about should come about just as it does, and then you'll have a calm and happy life. -- Epictetus
When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it; you can either accept it or resent it. -- Epictetus
Many people who have progressively lowered their personal standards in an attempt to win social acceptance and life's comforts bitterly resent those of philosophical bent who refuse to compromise their spiritual ideals and who seek to better themselves. -- Epictetus
We need to regularly stop and take stock; to sit down and determine within ourselves which things are worth valuing and which things are not; which risks are worth the cost and which are not. Even the most confusing or hurtful aspects of life can be made more tolerable by clear seeing and by choice. -- Epictetus
What matters most is what sort of person you are becoming. Wise individuals care only about whom they are today and who they can be tomorrow. -- Epictetus
I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment? -- Epictetus
35. When you do anything from a clear judgment that it ought to be done, never shun the being seen to do it, even though the world should make a wrong supposition about it; for, if you don't act right, shun the action itself; but, if you do, why are you afraid of those who censure you wrongly? -- Epictetus
Only the educated are free. -- Epictetus
No one who is in a state of fear or sorrow or tension is free, but whosoever is delivered from sorrows or fears or anxieties is at the same time delivered from servitude. -- Epictetus
It was the first and most striking characteristic of Socrates never to become heated in discourse, never to utter an injurious or insulting word
on the contrary, he persistently bore insult from others and thus put an end to the fray. -- Epictetus
It is always our choice whether or not we wish to pay the price for life's rewards. And often it is best for us not to pay the price, for the price might be our integrity. -- Epictetus
It is wicked to withdraw from being useful to the needy, and cowardly to give way to the worthless. -- Epictetus
Isn't reading a kind of preparation for life?'
But life is composed of things other than books. It is as if an athlete, on entering the stadium, were to complain that he's not outside exercising.This was the goal of your exercise, of your weights, your practice ring and your training partners. -- Epictetus
Don't seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you. -- Epictetus
If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: 'He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned.' -- Epictetus
Is then the fruit of a fig-tree not perfect suddenly and in one hour, and would you possess the fruit of a man's mind in so short a time and so easily? -- Epictetus
Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control. -- Epictetus
If you decide to do something, don't shrink from being seen doing it, even if the majority of people disapprove. If you're wrong to do it, then you should shrink from doing it altogether; but if you're right, then why worry how people will judge you? -- Epictetus
So don't make a show of your philosophical learning to the uninitiated, show them by your actions what you have absorbed. -- Epictetus
We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak. -- Epictetus
When one maintains his proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals. -- Epictetus
It is the act of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition; it is the act of one who has begun to be instructed, to lay blame on himself; and of one whose instruction is completed, neither to blame another, nor himself. -- Epictetus
Although we can't control which roles are assigned to us, it must be our business to act our given role as best we possibly can and to refrain from complaining about it. Where ever you find yourself and in whatever circumstances, give an impeccable performance. -- Epictetus
Give yourself fully to your endeavors. Decide to construct your character through excellent actions and determine to pay the price of a worthy goal. The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths. -- Epictetus
As the sun does not wait for prayers and incantations tob e induced to rise, but immediately shines and is saluted by all, so do you also not wait for clappings of hands and shouts of praise tob e induced to do good, but be a doer of good voluntarily and you will be beloved as much as the sun. -- Epictetus
Once I was liable to the same mistakes, but, thanks to God, no longer ... '
Well, isn't it just as worthwhile to have devoted and applied yourself to this goal as to have read or written fifty pages? -- Epictetus
To admonish is better than to reproach for admonition is mild and friendly, but reproach is harsh and insulting; and admonition corrects those who are doing wrong, but reproach only convicts them. -- Epictetus
It is better to advise than upbraid, for the one corrects the erring; the other only convicts them. -- Epictetus
28. If a person gave your body to any stranger he met on his way, you would certainly be angry. 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? -- Epictetus
The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best. -- Epictetus
To be getting an education means this: to be learning what is your own, and what is not your own. -- Epictetus
Nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back. For your own will is always within your control. -- Epictetus
Nothing outside the will can hinder or harm the will; it can only harm itself. If then we accept this, and, when things go amiss, are inclined to blame ourselves, remembering that judgment alone can disturb our peace and constancy, I swear to you by all the gods that we have made progress. -- Epictetus
When you close your doors, and make darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; nay, God is within, and your genius is within. And what need have they of light to see what you are doing? -- Epictetus
Embrace reality. Think about what delights you - the small luxuries on which you depend, the people whom you cherish most. But remember that they have their own distinct character, which is quite a separate matter from how we happen to regard them. -- Epictetus
It is no easy thing for a principle to become a man's own unless each day he maintains it and works it out in his life. -- Epictetus
If anyone should tell you that a particular person has spoken critically of you, don't bother with excuses or defenses. Just smile and reply, "I guess that person doesn't know about all my other faults. Otherwise, he wouldn't have mentioned only these." -- Epictetus
Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person's own life. -- Epictetus
It is a mark of a mean capacity to spend much time on the things which concern the body, such as much exercise, much eating, much drinking, much easing of the body, much copulation. But these things should be done as subordinate things: and let all your care be directed to the mind. -- Epictetus
When you actively engage in gradually refining yourself, you retreat from your lazy ways of covering yourself or making excuses. Instead of feeling a persistent current of low-level shame, you move forward by using the creative possibilities of this moment, your current situation. -- Epictetus
Epictetus being asked how a man should give pain to his enemy answered, By preparing himself to live the best life that he can. -- Epictetus
Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else. -- Epictetus
Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig. I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen. -- Epictetus
None of these things are foretold to me; but either to my paltry body, or property, or reputation, or children, or wife. But to me all omens are lucky, if I will. For whichever of these things happens, it is in my control to derive advantage from it. -- Epictetus
God has entrusted me with myself. No man is free who is not master of himself. A man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going. -- Epictetus
Focus not on what he or she does, but on keeping to your higher purpose. Your own purpose should seek harmony with nature itself. For this is the true road to freedom. -- Epictetus
It has been ordained that there be summer and winter, abundance and dearth, virtue and vice, and all such opposites for the harmony of the whole, and (Zeus) has given each of us a body, property, and companions. -- Epictetus
Freedom and slavery, the one is the name of virtue, and the other of vice, and both are acts of the will. -- Epictetus
Yes, but my nose is running.' Then what do you have hands for, you slave? -- Epictetus
Remember that you are in actor in a play of such a kind that the author chooses ... For this is your duty, to act well the part that is given to you; but to select the part belongs to another. -- Epictetus
for your part, do not desire to be a general, or a senator, or a consul, but to be free; and the only way to this is a disregard of things which lie not within our own power. -- Epictetus
If a person had delivered up your body to some passer-by, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in delivering up your own mind to any reviler, to be disconcerted and confounded? -- Epictetus
Be careful whom you associate with. It is human to imitate the habits of those with whom we interact. We inadvertently adopt their interests, their opinions, their values, and their habit of interpreting events. -- Epictetus
Envy is the antagonist of the fortunate. -- Epictetus
The philosopher's school, ye men, is a surgery: you ought not to go out of it with pleasure, but with pain. For you are not in sound health when you enter. -- Epictetus
The good of man, and likewise his ill, lies in how he exercises his choice, while everything else is nothing to us, -- Epictetus
We should do everything both cautiously and confidently at the same time. -- Epictetus
Of pleasures, those which occur most rarely give the most delight. -- Epictetus
Philosophers say that people are all guided by a single standard. When they assent to a thing, it is because they feel it must be true, when they dissent, it is because they feel something isn't true, and when they suspend judgement, it is because they feel that the thing is unclear. -- Epictetus
Ask yourself, "How are my thoughts, words and deeds affecting my friends, my spouse, my neighbour, my child, my employer, my subordinates, my fellow citizens?" -- Epictetus
Stop honouring externals, quit turning yourself into the tool of mere matter, or of people who can supply you or deny you those material things. -- Epictetus
Common and vulgar people ascribe all ills that they feel to others; people of little wisdom ascribe to themselves; people of much wisdom, to no one. -- Epictetus
The cause of all human evils is the not being able to apply general principles to special cases. -- Epictetus
Do you know that disease and death must needs overtake us, no matter what we are doing? ... what do you wish to be doing when it overtakes you? ... If you have anything better to be doing when you are so overtaken, get to work on that. -- Epictetus
The soul that companies with virtue is like an ever-flowing source. It is a pure, clear, and wholesome draught, sweet, rich and generous of its store, that injures not, neither destroys. -- Epictetus
You may fetter my leg, but Zeus himself cannot get the better of my free will. -- Epictetus
What is learned without pleasure is forgotten without remorse. -- Epictetus
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will. -- Epictetus
In literature, too, it is not great achievement to memorize what you have read while not formulating an opinion of your own. -- Epictetus
It doesn't take much to lose everything, just a little departure from reason -- Epictetus
What saith Antisthenes? Hast thou never heard? - It is a kingly thing, O Cyrus, to do well and to be evil spoken of. -- Epictetus
There is only one thing for which God has sent me into the world, and that is to develop every kind of virtue or strength, and there is nothing in all the world that I cannot use for this purpose. -- Epictetus
God has made all men to be happy. -- Epictetus
So if you like doing something, do it regularly; if you don't like doing something, make a habit of doing something different. -- Epictetus
Seek not the good in external things;seek it in yourselves. -- Epictetus
In prosperity it is very easy to find a friend; but in adversity it is the most difficult of all things. -- Epictetus
If someone irritates you, it is only your own response that is irritating you. Therefore, when anyone seems to be provoking you, remember that it is only your judgment of the incident that provokes you. - -- Epictetus
If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write. -- Epictetus
When you do anything from a clear judgment that it ought to be done, never shrink from being seen to do it, even though the world should misunderstand it; for if you are not acting rightly, shun the action itself; if you are, why fear those who wrongly censure you? -- Epictetus
Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder. -- Epictetus
Remember that you are but an actor, acting whatever part the Master has ordained. It may be short or it may be long. If he wishes you to represent a poor man, do so heartily; if a cripple, or a magistrate, or a private man, in each case act your part with honor. -- Epictetus
God save me from fools with a little philosophy - no one is more difficult to reach. -- Epictetus
In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake it -- Epictetus
Lampis the ship owner, on being asked how he acquired his great wealth, replied, My great wealth was acquired with no difficulty, but my small wealth, my first gains, with much labor. -- Epictetus
Very little is needed for everything to be upset and ruined, only a slight lapse in reason. -- Epictetus
Living a good life leads to enduring happiness. Goodness in and of itself is the practice AND the reward. -- Epictetus
Confident because of our caution -- Epictetus
In banquets remember that you entertain two guests, body and soul: and whatever you shall have given to the body you soon eject: but what you shall have given to the soul, you keep always. -- Epictetus
Death is not dreadful or else it would have appeared dreadful to Socrates. -- Epictetus
Man, the rational animal, can put up with anything except what seems to him irrational; whatever is rational is tolerable. -- Epictetus
You are the one who knows yourself - which is to say, you know how much you are worth in your own estimation, and therefore at what price you will sell yourself; because people sell themselves at different rates. -- Epictetus
Pleasure, like a kind of bait, is thrown before everything which is really bad, and easily allures greedy souls to the hook of perdition. -- Epictetus
No living being is held by anything so strongly as its own needs. -- Epictetus
To adorn our characters by the charm of an amiable nature shows at once a lover of beauty and a lover of man. -- Epictetus
Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one that is longer but of less account! -- Epictetus
Know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance sake, but for the sake of having done right? -- Epictetus
It is not events that disturb the minds of men, but the view they take of them. -- Epictetus
There are some things which men confess with ease, and others with difficulty. -- Epictetus
If they are wise, do not quarrel with them; if they are fools, ignore them. -- Epictetus
When then any man assents to that which is false, be assured that he did not intend to assent to it as false, for every soul is unwillingly deprived of the truth, as Plato says; but the falsity seemed to him to be true. -- Epictetus
Man is troubled not by events, but by the meaning he gives to them. -- Epictetus
The appearance of things to the mind is the standard of every action to man. -- Epictetus
Who, then, is the invincible human being? One who can be disconcerted by nothing that lies outside the sphere of choice. -- Epictetus
Fight against yourself, recover yourself to decency, to modesty, to freedom. And, in the first place, condemn your actions; but when you have condemned them, do not despair of yourself. For both ruin and recovery are from within. -- Epictetus
We all carry the seeds of greatness within us, but we need an image as a point of focus in order that they may sprout. -- Epictetus
Philosophy does not claim to secure for us anything outside our control. Otherwise it would be taking on matters that do not concern it. For as wood is the material of the carpenter, and marble that of the sculptor, so the subject matter of the art of life is the life of the self. -- Epictetus
It is not things in themselves which trouble us, but our opinions of things. -- Epictetus
Above all, remember that the door stands open. Be not more fearful than children; but as they, when they weary of the game, cry, "I will play no more," even so, when thou art in the like case, cry, "I will play no more" and depart. But if thou stayest, make no lamentation. -- Epictetus
I have to die. If it is now, well then I die now; if later, then now I will take my lunch, since the hour for lunch has arrived - and dying I will tend to later. -- Epictetus
Can we avoid people? How is that possible? And if we associate with them, can we change them? Who gives us that power? -- Epictetus
To pay homage to beauty is to admire Nature; to admire Nature is to worship God -- Epictetus
A ship should not be held by a single anchor; neither should life depend upon a single hope. -- Epictetus
On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use. -- Epictetus
In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught;but in life there are many things to draw us aside. -- Epictetus
People with a strong physical constitution can tolerate extremes of hot and cold; people of strong mental health can handle anger, grief, joy and the other emotions. -- Epictetus
Every circumstance comes with two handles, which one of which you can hold it, while with the other conditions are insupportable. -- Epictetus
Never say about anything, I have lost it, but only I have given it back. -- Epictetus
Attach yourself to what is spiritually superior, regardless of what other people think or do. Hold to your true aspirations no matter what is going on around you. -- Epictetus
First to those universal principles I have spoken of: these you must keep at command, and without them neither sleep nor rise, drink nor eat nor deal with men: the principle that no one can control another's will, and that the will alone is the sphere of good and evil. -- Epictetus
Faced with pain, you will discover the power of endurance. If you are insulted, you will discover patience. In time, you will grow to be confident that there is not a single impression that you will not have the moral means to tolerate. -- Epictetus
Not every difficult and dangerous thing is suitable for training, but only that which is conducive to success in achieving the object of our effort. -- Epictetus
Law intends indeed to do service to human life, but it is not able when men do not choose to accept her services; for it is only in those who are obedient to her that she displays her special virtue. -- Epictetus
The materials are indifferent, but the use we make of them is not a matter of indifference. -- Epictetus
In short, we do not abandon any discipline for despair of ever being the best in it. -- Epictetus
What are we to do, then? To make the best of what lies within our power, and deal with everything else as it comes. 'How does it come, then?' As God wills. -- Epictetus
The pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us greatest delight. -- Epictetus
An ignorant person is inclined to blame others for his own misfortune. To blame oneself is proof of progress. But the wise man never has to blame another or himself. -- Epictetus
Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths. -- Epictetus
What would Heracles have been if he had said, "How am I to prevent a big lion from appearing, or a big boar, or brutal men?" What care you, I say? If a big boar appears, you will have a greater struggle to engage in; if evil men appear, you will free the world from evil men. -- Epictetus
you're unable to make someone change his views, recognize that he is a child, and clap as he does. Or if you don't care to act in such a way, you have only to keep quiet. -- Epictetus
It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting. -- Epictetus
Let thy speech of God be renewed day by day, aye, rather than thy meat and drink. -- Epictetus
The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. -- Epictetus
Most people are impulsive, however, and having committed to the thing, they persist, just making more confusion for themselves and others until it all end in mutual recrimination. -- Epictetus
What is a good person? One who achieves tranquillity by having formed the habit of asking on every occasion, "what is the right thing to do now?" -- Epictetus
We can't control the impressions others form about us, and the effort to do so only debases our character. -- Epictetus
Dare to look up to God and say, Deal with me in the future as Thou wilt; I am of the same mind as Thou art; I am Thine; I refuse nothing that pleases Thee; lead me where Thou wilt; clothe me in any dress Thou choosest. -- Epictetus
If thou rememberest that God standeth by to behold and visit all that thou doest; whether in the body or in the soul, thou surely wilt not err in any prayer or deed; and thou shalt have God to dwell with thee. -- Epictetus
If you wish to live a life free from sorrow, think of what is going to happen as if it had already happened. -- Epictetus
Other people's views and troubles can be contagious. Don't sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others. -- Epictetus
There is a time and place for diversion and amusements, but you should never allow them to override your true purposes. -- Epictetus
You have been given your own work to do. Get to it right now, do your best at it, and don't be concerned with who is watching you. Create your own merit. -- Epictetus
Sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy. -- Epictetus
Is you naturally entitled, then, to a good father? No, only to a father. Is -- Epictetus
We must be afraid of neither poverty nor exile nor imprisonment; of fear itself only should we be afraid. -- Epictetus
If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it. -- Epictetus
Desire and happiness cannot live together. -- Epictetus
Circumstances do not rise to meet our expectations. Events happen as they do. People behave as they are. Embrace what you actually get. -- Epictetus
When you want to hear a philosopher, do not say, 'You say nothing to me'; only show yourself worthy or fit to hear, and then you will see how you will move the speaker. -- Epictetus
Learn to wish that everything should come to pass exactly as it does. -- Epictetus
And where there is ignorance, there is also want of learning and instruction in essentials. -- Epictetus
It is the sign of a dull mind to dwell upon the cares of the body, to prolong exercise, eating and drinking and other bodily functions. These things are best done by the way; all your attention must be given to the mind. -- Epictetus
When our friends are present we ought to treat them well; and when they are absent, to speak of them well. -- Epictetus
Act well your given part; the choice rests not with you. -- Epictetus
Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public. -- Epictetus
Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant. -- Epictetus
Small-minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise see all blame as foolishness -- Epictetus
He is free who lives as he wishes to live; who is neither subject to compulsion nor to hindrance, nor to force; whose movements to action are not impeded, whose desires attain their purpose, and who does not fall into that which he would avoid. -- Epictetus
[Do not get too attached to life] for it is like a sailor's leave on the shore and at any time, the captain may sound the horn, calling you back to eternal darkness. -- Epictetus
Events do not just happen, but arrive by appointment. -- Epictetus
If you ever happen to turn your attention to externals, for the pleasure of any one, be assured that you have ruined your scheme of life. Be contented, then, in everything, with being a philosopher; and if you with to seem so likewise to any one, appear so to yourself, and it will suffice you. -- Epictetus
To live a life of virtue, match up your thoughts, words, and deeds. -- Epictetus
A soul which is conversant with virtue is like an ever flowing source, for it is pure and tranquil and potable and sweet and communicative (social) and rich and harmless and free from mischief. -- Epictetus
Covetousness like jealousy, when it has taken root, never leaves a person, but with their life. Cowardice is the dread of what will happen. -- Epictetus
Always remember what is your own and what is not, and you'll never be troubled. [ -- Epictetus
It is impossible that happiness, and yearning for what is not present, should ever be united. -- Epictetus
Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly your own concern, and be clear that what belongs to others is their business and none of yours. -- Epictetus
The universe is but one great city, full of beloved ones, divine and human, by nature endeared to each other. -- Epictetus
Who is your master? Whoever has authority over anything that you're anxious to gain or avoid. -- Epictetus
Learn to distinguish what you can and can't control. Within our control are our own opinions, aspirations, desires and the things that repel us. They are directly subject to our influence. -- Epictetus
It's time to stop being vague. If you wish to be an extraordinary person, if you wish to be wise, then you should explicitly identify the kind of person you aspire to become. -- Epictetus
For what else is tragedy than the portrayal in tragic verse of the sufferings of men who have attached high value to external things? [27] -- Epictetus
Against specious appearances we must set clear convictions, bright and ready for use. When death appears as an evil, we ought immediately to remember that evils are things to be avoided, but death is inevitable. -- Epictetus
Why are you pestering me, pal? My own evils are enough for me. -- Epictetus
It is not a demonstration of kindness or friendship to the people we care about to join them in indulging in wrongheaded, negative feelings. We do a better service to ourselves and others by remaining detached and avoiding melodramatic reactions. -- Epictetus
Never in any case say I have lost such a thing, but I have returned it. Is your child dead? It is a return. Is your wife dead? It is a return. Are you deprived of your estate? Is not this also a return? -- Epictetus
You are a little soul carrying a dead body, as Epictetus said. -- Epictetus
Make it your goal never to fail in your desires or experience things you would rather avoid; try never to err in impulse and repulsion; aim to be perfect also in the practice of attention and withholding judgment. -- Epictetus
Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire. -- Epictetus
Exceed due measure, and the most delightful things become the least delightful. -- Epictetus
Not things, but opinions about things, trouble men. -- Epictetus
Nothing great is produced suddenly, since not even the grape or the fig is. If you say to me now that you want a fig, I will answer to you that it requires time: let it flower first, then put forth fruit, and then ripen. -- Epictetus
Choose the life that is noblest, for custom can make it sweet to thee. -- Epictetus
Have the wisdom to know what cannot be changed, and the strength to change what can. -- Epictetus
You can be happy if you know this secret: Some things are within your power to control and some things are not. -- Epictetus
Be not swept off your feet by the vividness of the impression, but say, Impression, wait for me a little. Let me see what you are and what you represent. Let me try you. -- Epictetus
It is hard to combine and unite these two qualities, the carefulness of one who is affected by circumstances, and the intrepidity of one who heeds them not. But it is not impossible: else
were happiness also impossible. -- Epictetus
Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about theorems, but act conformably to them. Thus, at an entertainment, don't talk how persons ought to eat, but
eat as you ought. For remember that in this manner Socrates also universally avoided all ostentation. -- Epictetus
Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it. -- Epictetus
Free is the person who lives as he wishes and cannot be coerced, impeded or compelled, whose impulses cannot be thwarted, who always gets what he desires and never has to experience what he would rather avoid. -- Epictetus
He wants what he cannot have, and does not want what he can't refuse - and isn't aware of it. He doesn't know the difference between his own possessions and others'. Because, if he did, he would never be thwarted of disappointed.
Or nervous. -- Epictetus
Whenever anyone criticizes or wrongs you, remember that they are only doing or saying what they think is right. They cannot be guided by your views, only their own; so if their views are wrong, they are the ones who suffer insofar as they are misguided. -- Epictetus
Make it your business to draw out the best in others by being an exemplar yourself. -- Epictetus
If you have anything better to be doing when death overtakes you, get to work on that. -- Epictetus
When a man is proud because he can understand and explain the
writings of Chrysippus, say to yourself, if Chrysippus had not written
obscurely, this man would have had nothing to be proud of. -- Epictetus
To get or not to get what we desire can be equally disappointing. -- Epictetus
If you would improve, submit to be considered wihout sense and foolish with respect to externals. Wish to be considered to know nothing; and if you shall seem to someone to be a person of importance, distrust yourself. -- Epictetus
These are the signs of a wise man: to reprove nobody, to praise nobody, to blame nobody, nor even to speak of himself or his own merits. -- Epictetus
Don't live by your own rules, but in harmony with nature -- Epictetus
Getting distracted by trifles is the easiest thing in the world ... Focus on your main duty -- Epictetus
That is the way things are weighed and disagreements settled - when standards are established. Philosophy aims to test and set such standards. And the wise man is advised to make use of their findings right way. -- Epictetus
We must not believe the many, who say that only free people ought to be educated, but we should rather believe the philosophers who say that only the educated are free. -- Epictetus
Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now. -- Epictetus
Crows pick out the eyes of the dead, when the dead have no longer need of them; but flatterers mar the soul of the living, and her eyes they blind. -- Epictetus
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems -- Epictetus
When someone is properly grounded in life, they shouldn't have to look outside themselves for approval. -- Epictetus
If you seek Truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found Truth, you need not fear being defeated. -- Epictetus
Wisdom means understanding without any doubt that circumstances do not rise to meet our expectations. Events happen as they may. People behave as they will. -- Epictetus
Lucky is the man who dies at work. -- Epictetus
If someone speaks badly of you, do not defend yourself against the accusations, but reply; you obviously don't know about my other vices, otherwise you would have mentioned these as well -- Epictetus
Don't regard what anyone says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours. -- Epictetus
No man is free who is not master of himself. -- Epictetus
Who are those people by whom you wish to be admired? Are they not these whom you are in the habit of saying that they are mad? What then? Do you wish to be admired by the mad? -- Epictetus
Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope. -- Epictetus
If you are told that such an one speaks ill of you, make no defense against what was said, but answer, He surely knows not my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these only! -- Epictetus
You will do the greatest services to the state, if you shall raise not the roofs of the houses, but the souls of the citizens: for it is better that great souls should dwell in small houses than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses. -- Epictetus
Men are not troubled by things themselves, but by their thoughts about them -- Epictetus
It is difficulties that show what men are. -- Epictetus
Freedom, you see, is having events go in accordance with our will, never contrary to it. -- Epictetus
If we are not stupid or insincere when we say that the good or ill of man lies within his own will, and that all beside is nothing to us, why are we still troubled? -- Epictetus
Is it not the same distance to God everywhere? -- Epictetus
Men are not worried by things, but by their ideas about things. When we meet with difficulties, become anxious or troubled, let us not blame others, but rather ourselves. That is: our ideas about things. -- Epictetus
If a man is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault, for God made all men to be happy. -- Epictetus
Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words. -- Epictetus
When a youth was giving himself airs in the Theatre and saying, 'I am wise, for I have conversed with many wise men,' Epictetus replied, 'I too have conversed with many rich men, yet I am not rich!'. -- Epictetus
If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase. -- Epictetus
Consider the bigger picture ... think things through and fully commit! -- Epictetus
I laugh at those who think they can damage me. They do not know who I am, they do not know what I think, they cannot even touch the things which are really mine and with which I live. -- Epictetus
One of the best ways to elevate your character is to emulate worthy role models -- Epictetus
It is not events that disturb people, it is their judgements concerning them. -- Epictetus
It is your own convictions which compels you; that is, choice compels choice. -- Epictetus
One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent. -- Epictetus
When any person treats you ill or speaks ill of you, remember that he does this or says this because he thinks it is his duty. It is not possible, then, for him to follow that which seems right to you, but that which seems right to himself. -- Epictetus
For even sheep do not vomit up their grass and show to the shepherds how much they have eaten; but when they have internally digested the pasture, they produce externally wool and milk. Do you also show not your theorems to the uninstructed, but show the acts which come from their digestion. -- Epictetus
Here are thieves and robbers and tribunals: and they that are called tyrants, who deem that they have after a fashion power over us, because of the miserable body and what appertains to it. Let us show them that they have power over none. -- Epictetus
Fortify yourself with contentment for this is an impregnable fortress. -- Epictetus
Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the world. -- Epictetus
But first consider how much more sparing and patient of hardship the poor are than we. -- Epictetus
Don't be concerned with other people's impressions of you. They are dazzled and deluded by appearances. Stick with your purpose. This alone will strengthen your will and give your life coherence. -- Epictetus
Don't put your purpose in one place and expect to see progress made somewhere else. -- Epictetus
Even as the Sun doth not wait for prayers and incantations to rise, but shines forth and is welcomed by all: so thou also wait not for clapping of hands and shouts and praise to do thy duty; nay, do good of thine own accord, and thou wilt be loved like the Sun. -- Epictetus
Within our control are our own opinions, aspirations, and desires and the demons that distract us from these goals. Outside of our control are such things as what kind of body we have, whether or not we are born into wealth, and how we are regarded by others. -- Epictetus
Shall I show you the sinews of a philosopher? What sinews are those? - A will undisappointed; evils avoided; powers daily exercised; careful resolutions; unerring decisions. -- Epictetus
Survey and test a prospective action before undertaking it. Before you proceed, step back and look at the big picture, lest you act rashly on raw impulse. -- Epictetus
Authentic happiness is always independent of external conditions. Vigilantly practice polite indifference to that which we can't control. Your happiness can only be found within. -- Epictetus
Remember that the divine order is intelligent and fundamentally good. Life is not a series of random, meaningless episodes, but an ordered, elegant whole that follows ultimately comprehensible laws. -- Epictetus
As long as you honour material things, direct your anger at yourself rather than the thief or adulterer. -- Epictetus
It is not he who gives abuse that affronts, but the view that we take of it as insulting; so that when one provokes you it is your own opinion which is provoking. -- Epictetus
Things themselves don't hurt or hinder us. Things simply are what they are. How we view these things is another matter.People think what they will think; it is of no concern to us. -- Epictetus
I am always content with what happens; for I know that what God chooses is better than what I choose. -- Epictetus
If you wish to be a writer; write!
Send quote to a friend
Epictetus (50-120) Greek philosopher. -- Epictetus
It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous
even death is terrible only if we fear it. -- Epictetus
If you have assumed a character above your strength, you have both acted in this matter in an unbecoming way, and you have neglected that which you might have fulfilled. -- Epictetus
You only have to doze a moment, and all is lost. For ruin and salvation both have their source inside you. -- Epictetus
If you see anybody wail and complain, call him a slave, though he be clad in purple. -- Epictetus
If you would be good, first believe you are bad. -- Epictetus
The condition and characteristic of an uninstructed person is this: he never expects from himself profit (advantage) nor harm, but from externals. The condition and characteristic of a philosopher is this: he expects all advantage and all harm from himself. -- Epictetus
We are at the mercy of whoever wields authority over the things we either desire or detest. If you would be free, then, do not wish to have, or avoid, things that other people control, because then you must serve as their slave. -- Epictetus
Who is a friend?" his answer was, "A second self (alter ego). -- Epictetus
He who is not happy with little will never be happy with much. -- Epictetus
You are a little soul carrying around a corpse -- Epictetus
To a longer and worse life, a shorter and better is by all means to be preferred. -- Epictetus
Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens. -- Epictetus
What will the world be quite overturned when you die? -- Epictetus
Every art and every faculty contemplates certain things as its principal objects. -- Epictetus
If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it. -- Epictetus
The soul's impurity consists in bad judgments, and purification consists in producing in it right judgments, and the pure soul is one which has right judgments. -- Epictetus
A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single
hope -- Epictetus
It is more necessary for the soul to be cured than the body; for it is better to die than to live badly. -- Epictetus
Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power. -- Epictetus
Never look for your work in one place and your progress in another. -- Epictetus
It is the part of an uneducated person to blame others where he himself fares ill; to blame himself is the part of one whose education has begun; to blame neither another nor his own self is the part of one whose education is already complete. -- Epictetus
You must be one man, either good or bad. You must cultivate either your own ruling faculty or externals, and apply yourself either to things within or without you; that is, be either a philosopher, or one of the vulgar. -- Epictetus
An uninstructed person will lay the fault of his own bad condition upon others. Someone just starting instruction will lay the fault on himself. Some who is perfectly instructed will place blame neither on others nor on himself. -- Epictetus
If you wish it, you are free; if you wish it, you'll find fault with no one, you'll cast blame on no one, and everything that comes about will do so in accordance with your own will and that of God. -- Epictetus
Conduct yourself in all matters, grand and public or small and domestic, in accordance with the laws of nature. Harmonizing your will with nature should be your utmost ideal. -- Epictetus
God has entrusted me with myself. -- Epictetus
It is my business, to manage carefully and dexterously whatever happens -- Epictetus
Asked how a man should best grieve his enemy, Epictetus replied, By setting himself to live the noblest life himself. -- Epictetus
Contentment comes not so much from great wealth as from few wants. -- Epictetus
In trying to please other people, we find ourselves misdirected toward what lies outside our sphere of influence. In doing so, we lose our hold on our lifes purpose. -- Epictetus
It is better to do wrong seldom and to own it, and to act right for the most part, than seldom to admit that you have done wrong and to do wrong often. -- Epictetus
Each man's life is a kind of campaign, and a long and complicated one at that. You have to maintain the character of a soldier, and do each separate act at the bidding of the General. -- Epictetus
It is not my place in society that makes me well off, but my judgements, and these I can carry with me ... These alone are my own and cannot be taken away. -- Epictetus
Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but accustom yourself to something else. -- Epictetus
The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing. -- Epictetus
Difficulties are things that show a person what they are. -- Epictetus
It is unreasonable to think we can earn rewards without being willing to pay their true price. It is always our choice whether or not we wish to pay the price for life's rewards. -- Epictetus
Remind thyself that he whom thou lovest is mortal - that what
thou lovest is not thine own; it is given thee for the present, not
irrevocably nor for ever, but even as a fig or a bunch of grapes at
the appointed season of the year -- Epictetus
Those who are well constituted in the body endure both heat and cold: and so those who are well constituted in the soul endure both anger and grief and excessive joy and the other affects. -- Epictetus
No great thing is created suddenly. There must be time. Give your best and always be kind. -- Epictetus
To a reasonable creature, that alone is insupportable which is unreasonable; but everything reasonable may be supported. -- Epictetus
People are ready to acknowledge some of their faults, but will admit to others only with reluctance. -- Epictetus
As a man, casting off worn out garments taketh new ones, so the dweller in the body, entereth into ones that are new. -- Epictetus
Nothing is in reality either pleasant or unpleasant by nature but all things become so through habit -- Epictetus
You will never have to experience defeat if you avoid contests whose outcome is outside your control. -- Epictetus
You ought to realize, you take up very little space in the world as a whole - your body, that is; in reason, however, you yield to no one, not even to the gods, because reason is not measured in size but sense. So why not care for that side of you, where you and the gods are equals? -- Epictetus
I'll show you that I'm master.'
- How will you do that? Zeus has set me free. Do you really suppose that he would allow his own son to be turned into a slave? You're master of my carcass, take that. -- Epictetus
For if we had any sense, what else should we do, both in public and in private, than sing hymns and praise the deity, and recount all the favours that he has conferred! -- Epictetus
Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them. -- Epictetus
There is nothing good or evil save in the will. -- Epictetus
Nothing great comes into being all at once, for that is not the case even with a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me now, 'I want a fig,' I'll reply, 'That takes time. -- Epictetus
What is a child? Ignorance. What is a child? Want of instruction. -- Epictetus
First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak. -- Epictetus
You are a principal work, a fragment of [Goddess herself], you have in yourself a part of [her]. Why then are you ignorant of your high birth? -- Epictetus
He who exercises wisdom, exercises the knowledge which is about God. -- Epictetus
What makes for freedom and fluency in the practice of writing? Knowledge of how to write. The same goes for the practice of playing an instrument. It follows that, in the conduct of life, there must be a science to living well. -- Epictetus
It were no slight attainment could we merely fulfil what the nature of man implies. -- Epictetus
If you think you control things that are in the control of others, you will lament. You will be disturbed and you will blame both gods and men. -- Epictetus
What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance. -- Epictetus
It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them. -- Epictetus
To know that you do not know and to be willing to admit that you do not know without sheepishly apologizing is real strength and sets the stage for learning and progress in any endeavor. -- Epictetus
Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to. -- Epictetus
I have learned to see that whatever comes about is nothing to me if it lies beyond the sphere of choice. -- Epictetus
Progress is not achieved by luck or accident, but by working on yourself daily. -- Epictetus
The philosopher's lecture room is a 'hospital': you ought not to walk out of it in a state of pleasure, but in pain; for you are not in good condition when you arrive. -- Epictetus
In theory it is easy to convince an ignorant person; in actual life, men not only object to offer themselves to be convinced, but hate the man who has convinced them. -- Epictetus
It is much better to die of hunger unhindered by grief and fear than to live affluently beset with worry, dread, suspicion and unchecked desire. -- Epictetus
Don't be prideful with any excellence that is not your own -- Epictetus
So what oppresses and scares us? It is our own thoughts, obviously, What overwhelms people when they are about to leaves friends, family, old haunts and their accustomed way of life? Thoughts. -- Epictetus
The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have. -- Epictetus
Cowardice, the dread of what will happen. -- Epictetus
There is but one way to tranquility of mind and happiness, and that is to account no external things thine own, but to commit all to God. -- Epictetus
Difficulty shows what men are. Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man. Why? So that you may become an Olympic conqueror; but it is not accomplished without sweat. -- Epictetus
Do not strive for things occurring to occur as you wish, but wish the things occurring as they occur, and you will flow well. -- Epictetus
Seek not for events to happen as you wish but rather wish for events to happen as they do and your life will go smoothly. -- Epictetus
Don't demand or expect that events happen as you would wish them do. Accept events as they actually happen. That way, peace is possible. -- Epictetus
Demand not that things happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do, and you will go on well. -- Epictetus
No man is disturbed by things, but by his opinion about things. -- Epictetus
And have you not received faculties which will enable you to bear all that happens to you? Have you not received greatness of spirit? Have you not received courage? Have you not received endurance? -- Epictetus
Contentment, as it is a short road and pleasant, has great delight and little trouble. -- Epictetus
Those proficient praise no one, blame no one, and accuse no one. They say nothing concerning their self as being anybody or knowing anything. -- Epictetus
Whoever chafes at the conditions dealt by fate is unskilled in the art of life; whoever bears with them nobly and makes wise use of the results is a man who deserves to be considered good. -- Epictetus
He who is discontented with what he has, and with what has been granted to him by fortune, is one who is ignorant of the art of living, but he who bears that in a noble spirit, and makes reasonable use of all that comes from it, deserves to be regarded as a good man. -- Epictetus
We aren't filled with fear except by things that are bad; and not by them, either, as long as it is in our power to avoid them. -- Epictetus
When you have decided that a thing ought to be done and are doing it, never avoid bein seen doing it, though many shall form an unfavorable opinion about it. For if it is not right to do it, avoid doing the thing; but if it is right, why are you afraid of those who shall find fault wrongly? -- Epictetus
We should not have either a blunt knife or a freedom of speech which is ill-managed. -- Epictetus
Why, do you not know, then, that the origin of all human evils, and of baseness, and cowardice, is not death, but rather the fear of death? -- Epictetus
Your happiness depends on three things, all of which are within your power: your will, your ideas concerning the events in which you are involved, and the use you make of your ideas. -- Epictetus
We are not to lead events, but to follow them. -- Epictetus
Who is not attracted by bright and pleasant children, to prattle, to creep, and to play with them? -- Epictetus
Freedom is the right to live as we wish. -- Epictetus
Restrict yourself to choice and refusal; and exercise them carefully, with discipline and detachment. -- Epictetus
Finally, when he crowns it off by becoming a senator, then he becomes a slave in fine company, then he experiences the poshest and most prestigious form of enslavement. -- Epictetus
Thus Socrates became perfect, improving himself by everything. attending to nothing but reason. And though you are not yet a Socrates, you ought, however, to live as one desirous of becoming a Socrates. 51. -- Epictetus
Be free from grief not through insensibility like the irrational animals, nor through want of thought like the foolish, but like a man of virtue by having reason as the consolation of grief. -- Epictetus
No great thing is created suddenly. -- Epictetus
It takes more than just a good looking body. You've got to have the heart and soul to go with it. -- Epictetus
There are two things that must be rooted out in human beings - arrogant opinion and mistrust. Arrogant opinion expects that there is nothing further needed, and mistrust assumes that under the torrent of circumstance there can be no happiness. -- Epictetus
Try to enjoy the great festival of life with other men. -- Epictetus
What is yours is to play the assigned part well. But to choose it belongs to someone else -- Epictetus
Disease is an impediment to the body, but not to the will, unless the will itself chooses. Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to the will. And add this reflection on the occasion of everything that happens; for you will find it an impediment to something else, but not to yourself. X -- Epictetus
At feasts, remember that you are entertaining two guests, body and soul. What you give to the body, you presently lose; what you give to the soul, you keep for ever. -- Epictetus
Sickness is a problem for the body, not the mind - unless the mind decides that it is a problem. Lameness, too, is the body's problem, not the mind's. Say this to yourself whatever the circumstance and you will find without fail that the problem pertains to something else, not to you. -- Epictetus
The foolish and the uneducated have little use for freedom. Only the educated are free. -- Epictetus
no man is free until he s a master of himself!! -- Epictetus
- ... .when things seem to have reached that stage, merely say "I won't play any longer", and take your departure; but if you stay, stop lamenting. -- Epictetus
Here is the beginning of philosophy: a recognition of the conflicts between men, a search for their cause, a condemnation of mere opinion .. and the discovery of a standard of judgement. -- Epictetus
The beginning of philosophy is the recognition of the conflict between opinions. -- Epictetus
If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it. -- Epictetus
No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things. -- Epictetus
Do not so much be ashamed of that disgrace which proceeds from men's opinion as fly from that which comes from the truth. -- Epictetus
If anyone is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault ... Nothing else is the cause of anxiety or loss of tranquility except our own opinion. -- Epictetus
When we act pugnaciously, and injuriously, and angrily, and rudely, to what level have we degenerated? To the level of the wild beasts. Well, the fact is that some of us are wild beasts of a larger size, while others are little animals, malignant and petty. -- Epictetus
We ought to flee the friendship of the wicked, and the enmity of the good. -- Epictetus
By accepting life's limits and inevitabilities and working with them rather than fighting them, we become free. -- Epictetus
Every habit and faculty is preserved and increased by correspondent actions, as the habit of walking, by walking; of running, by running. -- Epictetus
Consider first, man, what the matter is, and what your own nature is able to bear. If you would be a wrestler, consider your shoulders, your back, your thighs; for different persons are made for different things. -- Epictetus
All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain. -- Epictetus
If I was a nightingale I would sing like a nightingale; if a swan, like a swan. But since I am a rational creature my role is to praise God. -- Epictetus
You may be always victorious if you will never enter into any contest where the issue does not wholly depend upon yourself. -- Epictetus
Tell yourself what you want to be, then act your part accordingly. -- Epictetus
Ask yourself: Does this appearance (of events) concern the things that are within my own control or those that are not? If it concerns anything outside your control, train yourself not to worry about it. -- Epictetus
Don't concern yourself with other people's business. It's his problem if he receives you badly. And you cannot suffer for another person's fault. So don't worry about the behavior of other. -- Epictetus
A city is not adorned by external things, but by the virtue of those who dwell in it. -- Epictetus
Whatever your mission, stick by it as if it were a law and you would be committing sacrilege to betray it. Pay no attention to whatever people might say; this no longer should influence you. -- Epictetus
No matter where you find yourself, comport yourself as if you were a distinguished person. -- Epictetus
It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death. -- Epictetus
It is better by assenting to truth to conquer opinion, than by assenting to opinion to be conquered by truth. -- Epictetus
Avoid banquets which are given by strangers an ignorant persons. But if there is ever occasion to join them, let your attention be carefully fixed, that you slip not into the manner of the vulgar (the uninstructed). -- Epictetus
To live a life of virtue, you have to become consistent, even when it isn't convenient, comfortable, or easy. -- Epictetus
Happiness is an equivalent for all troublesome things. -- Epictetus
Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly. -- Epictetus
No man can rob us of our Will - no man can lord it over that! LXXXIV -- Epictetus
If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please. -- Epictetus
What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows. -- Epictetus
You can be invincible, if you enter into no contest in which it is not in your power to conquer. -- Epictetus
People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them. -- Epictetus
Destroy desire completely for the present. For if you desire anything which is not in our power, you must be unfortunate -- Epictetus
Whoever is going to listen to the philosophers needs a considerable practice in listening. -- Epictetus
Do nothing in a depressed mood, nor as one afflicted, nor as thinking that you are in misery, for no one compels you to that. -- Epictetus
Whoever wants to be free, therefore, let him not want or avoid anything that is up to others. Otherwise he will necessarily be a slave. -- Epictetus
Everything has two handles,-one by which it may be borne; another by which it cannot. -- Epictetus
The wise person knows it is fruitless to project hopes and fears on the future. This only leads to forming melodramatic representations in your mind and wasting time. -- Epictetus
Happiness and personal fulfillment are the natural consequences of doing the right thing. -- Epictetus
Be not diverted from your duty by any idle reflections the silly world may make upon you, for their censures are not in your power and should not be at all your concerns. -- Epictetus
You become what you give your attention to. -- Epictetus
If what philosophers say of the kinship of God and Man be true, what remains for men to do but as Socrates did: - never, when asked one's country, to answer, "I am an Athenian or a Corinthian," but "I am a citizen of the world. -- Epictetus
If you seek truth you will not seek victory by dishonorable means, and if you find truth you will become invincible. -- Epictetus
At every occasion in your life, do not forget to commune with
yourself and ask of yourself how you can profit by it. -- Epictetus
Check your passions that you may not be punished by them. -- Epictetus
Whoever then would be free, let him wish for nothing, let him decline nothing, which depends on others; else he must necessarily be a slave. -- Epictetus
Don't hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace. -- Epictetus
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows. -- Epictetus
We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them -- Epictetus
Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle. -- Epictetus
He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. -- Epictetus
If you wish to be good, first believe that you are bad. -- Epictetus
In the long run, every man will pay the penalty for this own misdeeds. -- Epictetus
The knowledge of what is mine and what is not mine, what I can and cannot do. I must die. But must I die bawling? I must be exiled; but is there anything to keep me from going with a smile, calm and self-composed? -- Epictetus
Let no man think that he is loved by any who loveth none. -- Epictetus
We tell lies, yet it is easy to show that lying is immoral. -- Epictetus
Everyone's life is a warfare, and that long and various. -- Epictetus
What disturbs people's minds are not events but their judgments on events. -- Epictetus
What disturbs people, these are not things, but the judgments relating to things -- Epictetus
Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak. -- Epictetus
He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at. -- Epictetus
Renew every day your conversation with God: Do this even in preference to eating. Think more often of God than you breathe. -- Epictetus
Ruin and recovering are both from within. -- Epictetus
Think of God oftener than you breathe. -- Epictetus
If you would be well spoken of, learn to be well-spoken; and having learnt to be well- spoken, strive also to be well-doing; so shall you succeed in being well spoken of. -- Epictetus
Confidence in nonsense is a requirement for the creative process. -- Epictetus
Your master is he who controls that on which you have set your heart or wish to avoid. -- Epictetus
A soul that makes virtue its companion is like an over-flowing well, for it is clean and pellucid, sweet and wholesome, open to all, rich, blameless and indestructible. -- Epictetus
If you have assumed any character beyond your strength, you have both demeaned yourself ill in that and quitted one which you might have supported. -- Epictetus
When men are unhappy, they do not imagine they can ever cease to be so; and when some calamity has fallen on them, they do not see how they can get rid of it. Nevertheless, both arrive; and the gods have ordered it so, in the end men seek it from the gods -- Epictetus
Books are the training weights of the mind. -- Epictetus
Only consider at what price you sell your own will: if for no other reason, at least for this, that you sell it not for a small sum. -- Epictetus
You lose only the things you have -- Epictetus
To make anything a habit, do it; to not make it a habit, do not do it; to unmake a habit, do something else in place of it. -- Epictetus
Let death be daily before your eyes, and you will never entertain any abject thought, nor too eagerly covet anything. -- Epictetus
The best place to get help is from yourself. -- Epictetus
It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance -- Epictetus
It is not the events but our viewpoint toward events that is the determining factor. We ought to be more concerned about removing wrong thoughts from the mind than removing tumors and abscesses from the body. -- Epictetus
Asked, Who is the rich man? Epictetus replied, "He who is content. -- Epictetus
There are some faults which men readily admit, but others not so readily. -- Epictetus
What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others. -- Epictetus
If anyone tells you that such a person speaks ill of you, don't make excuses about what is said of you, but answer: " He does not know my other faults, else he would not have mentioned only these. -- Epictetus
What is it that every man seeks? To be secure, to be happy, to do what he pleases without restraint and without compulsion. -- Epictetus
Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them. -- Epictetus
Bear in mind that you should conduct yourself in life as at a feast. -- Epictetus
Bid a singer in a chorus, Know Thyself; and will he not turn for the knowledge to the others, his fellows in the chorus, and to his harmony with them? -- Epictetus
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. -- Epictetus
Man is not fully free unless he is master of himself. -- Epictetus
Things true and evident must of necessity be recognized by those who would contradict them. -- Epictetus
When the idea of any pleasure strikes your imagination, make a just computation between the duration of the pleasure and that of the repentance that is likely to follow it. -- Epictetus
The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will. -- Epictetus
Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to a humble and grateful mind. -- Epictetus
It is unrealistc to expect people to see you as you see yourself. -- Epictetus
What is death? A scary mask. Take it off-see, it doesn't bite. -- Epictetus
I am not eternity, but a man; a part of the whole, as an hour is of the day. -- Epictetus
Greatness of reason is measured not by height or length, but by the quality of its judgements. -- Epictetus
If I can acquire money and also keep myself modest and faithful and magnanimous, point out the way, and I will acquire it. -- Epictetus
Try not to react merely in the moment. Pull back from the situation. Take a wider view. Compose yourself. -- Epictetus
First tell yourself what you want to be, then do what you need to do. -- Epictetus
The flourishing life cannot be achieved until we moderate our desires and see how superficial and fleeting they are. -- Epictetus
People find particular things, however, frightening; and it's when someone is able to threaten or entice us with those that the man himself becomes frightening. -- Epictetus
Wherever any one is against his will, that is to him a prison. -- Epictetus
The Beginning of Philosophy is a Consciousness of your own Weakness and inability in necessary things. -- Epictetus
When you let go of your attention for a little while, do not think you may recover it whenever you please. -- Epictetus
The good or ill of a man lies within his own will. -- Epictetus
Fortune is an evil chain to the body, and vice to the soul. -- Epictetus
Protect what belongs to you at all costs; don't desire what belongs to another. -- Epictetus
With ills unending strives the putter off. -- Epictetus
If you can make music with someone you don't need words.
If you wish to be a writer, write. -- Epictetus
If any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone. For God hath made all men to enjoy felicity and constancy of good. -- Epictetus
If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother. -- Epictetus
We do not choose our own parts in life, and have nothing to do with those parts. Our duty is confined to playing them well. -- Epictetus
Never say of anything that I've lost it, only that Ive given it back. -- Epictetus
If you would cure anger, do not feed it. Say to yourself: 'I used to be angry every day; then every other day; now only every third or fourth day.' When you reach thirty days offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods. -- Epictetus
Think of God more often than thou breathest. -- Epictetus
What ought one to say then as each hardship comes? I was practicing for this, I was training for this. -- Epictetus
I want to die, even though I don't have to. -- Epictetus
For sheep don't throw up the grass to show the shepherds how much they have eaten; but, inwardly digesting their food, they outwardly produce wool and milk. -- Epictetus
We must ever bear in mind
that apart from the will there is nothing good or bad, and that we must not try to anticipate or to direct events, but merely to accept them with intelligence. -- Epictetus
If you wish to be a writer, write. -- Epictetus
When your thoughts, words, and deeds form a seamless fabric, you streamline your efforts and thus eliminate worry and dread. -- Epictetus
Any person capable of angering you becomes your master;
he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him. -- Epictetus
Taking account of the value of externals, you see, comes at some cost to the value of one's own character. -- Epictetus
Watch yourself as you go about your daily business and later reflect on what you saw, trying to identify the sources of distress in your life and thinking about how to avoid that distress. -- Epictetus
There is no shame in making an honest effort. -- Epictetus
Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinion about the things. -- Epictetus
For in this Case, we are not to give Credit to the Many, who say, that none ought to be educated but the Free; but rather to the Philosophers, who say, that the Well-educated alone are free. -- Epictetus
To the rational being only the irrational is unendurable, but the rational is endurable. -- Epictetus
Consider first the nature of the business in hand; then examine thy own nature, whether thou hast strength to undertake it. -- Epictetus
It isn't death, pain, exile or anything else you care to mention that accounts for the way we act, only our opinion about death, pain and the rest. -- Epictetus
Difficulties show men what they are.
In case of any difficulty,
remember that God has pitted you
against a rough antagonist
that you may be a conqueror,
and this cannot be without toil. -- Epictetus
If what charms you is nothing but abstract principles, sit down and turn them over quietly in your mind: but never dub yourself a Philosopher. -- Epictetus
Pain or pleasure? I say pleasure. -- Epictetus
But to be hanged - is that not unendurable? Even so, when a man feels that it is reasonable, he goes off and hangs himself. -- Epictetus
No one is ever unhappy because of someone else. -- Epictetus
For it is not death or pain that is to be feared, but the fear of pain or death. -- Epictetus
It's so simple really: If you say you're going to do something, do it. If you start something, finish it. -- Epictetus
From now on practice saying to everything that appears unpleasant: You are merely an appearance and NOT what you appear to be. -- Epictetus
Tis true I know what evil I shall do but passion overpowers the better council. -- Epictetus
In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace. -- Epictetus
What you shun enduring yourself, attempt not to impose on others. You shun slavery- beware enslaving others! If you can endure to do that, one would think you had been once upon a time a slave yourself. For vice has nothing in common with virtue, nor Freedom with slavery. -- Epictetus
If you wish to write, write. -- Epictetus
Do not laugh much or often or unrestrainedly. -- Epictetus
It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows. -- Epictetus
Understand that every event is indifferent and nothing to you, of whatever sort it may be; for it will be in your power to make a right use of it, and this no one can hinder. -- Epictetus
A half-hearted spirit has no power. Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Average people enter into their endeavors headlong and without care. -- Epictetus
A man that seeks truth and loves it must be reckoned precious to any human society. -- Epictetus
Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life. IX -- Epictetus
If you have assumed a character beyond your strength, you have both played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is within your powers. -- Epictetus
To accuse others for one's own misfortune is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete. -- Epictetus
We should realize that an opinion is not easily formed unless a person says and hears the same things every day and practises them in real life. -- Epictetus
Difficulty shows what men are. -- Epictetus
What is it to be a philosopher? Is it not to be prepared against events? -- Epictetus
What concerns me is not the way things are, but the way people think things are. -- Epictetus
We all dread a bodily paralysis, and would make use of every contrivance to avoid it; but none of us is troubled about a paralysis of the soul. -- Epictetus
Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, the part of a swan. -- Epictetus
He is a drunkard who takes more than three glasses though he be not drunk. -- Epictetus
When you find your direction, check to make sure that it is the right one. -- Epictetus
The origin of sorrow is this: to wish for something that does not come to pass. -- Epictetus
It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should? -- Epictetus
All religions must be tolerated ... for every man must get to heaven in his own way. -- Epictetus
Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit. -- Epictetus
Unremarkable lives are marked by the fear of not looking capable when trying something new. -- Epictetus
Unless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed. -- Epictetus
If your heart is quite set upon a crown, make and put on one of roses, for it will make the prettier appearance. -- Epictetus
Take care not to hurt the ruling faculty of your mind. If you were to guard against this in every action, you should enter upon those actions more safely. -- Epictetus
The wise realize that some things are within their control, and most things are not. They learn early on to distinguish between what they can and can't regulate. -- Epictetus
We should put our trust not in the crowd, who say that only free men can be educated, but rather in the philosophers, who say that none but the educated can be free. -- Epictetus
No matter what happens, it is within my power to turn it to my advantage. -- Epictetus
Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself. -- Epictetus
It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters. -- Epictetus
You're not yet Socrates, but you can still live as if you want to be him. -- Epictetus
In order to please others, we loose our hold on our life's purpose. -- Epictetus
Never say of anything I have lost it, only say that I have given it back. -- Epictetus
Act your part with honor. -- Epictetus
Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly. -- Epictetus
Appear to know only this
never to fail nor fall. -- Epictetus
It is not so much what happens to you as how you think about what happens.
Epictetus -- Epictetus
Whoever then wishes to be free, let him neither wish for anything nor avoid anything which depends on others: if he does not observe this rule, he must be a slave. -- Epictetus
Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and be silent. -- Epictetus
Every place is safe to him who lives with justice. -- Epictetus
Resistance is vain in any case; it only leads to useless struggle while inviting grief and sorrow. -- Epictetus
Freedom is not archived by satisfying desire, but by eliminating it. -- Epictetus
As it is pleasant to see the sea from the land, so it is pleasant for him who has escaped from troubles to think of them. -- Epictetus
If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid. -- Epictetus
Some things are up to us, and some things are not up to us. -- Epictetus
Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee. ~ Epictetus -- Epictetus
A thing either is what it appears to be; or it is not, but yet appears to be; or it is, but does not appear to be; or it is not, and does not appear to be. -- Epictetus
If then you desire (aim at) such great things remember that you must not (attempt to) lay hold of them with a small effort; -- Epictetus
Liars are the cause of all the sins and crimes in the world. -- Epictetus
Anything worth putting off is worth abandoning altogether. -- Epictetus
Men are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen. -- Epictetus
If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked. -- Epictetus
Let your will to avoid have no concern with what is not in man's power; direct it only to things in man's power that are contrary to nature. -- Epictetus
Do not give sentence in another tribunal till you have been yourself judged in the tribunal of Justice. -- Epictetus
Do not try to seem wise to others. -- Epictetus
Seek to be the purple thread in the long white gown. -- Epictetus
The soul is unwillingly deprived of truth. -- Epictetus
Practice yourself, for heaven's sake in little things, and then proceed to greater. -- Epictetus
You are but an appearance, and not absolutely the thing you appear to be. -- Epictetus
You ought to choose both physician and friend, not the most agreeable, but the most useful. -- Epictetus