Epictetus Quotes
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Pleasure, like a kind of bait, is thrown before everything which is really bad, and easily allures greedy souls to the hook of perdition.
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To get or not to get what we desire can be equally disappointing.
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Every habit and faculty is preserved and increased by correspondent actions,-as the habit of walking, by walking; of running, by running.
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To be getting an education means this: to be learning what is your own, and what is not your own.
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If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.
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You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.
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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.
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To Epictetus, all external events are determined by fate, and are thus beyond our control, but we can accept whatever happens calmly and dispassionately. Individuals, however, are responsible for their own actions which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline. Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power. As part of the universal city that is the universe, human beings have a duty of care to all fellow humans. The person who followed these precepts would achieve happiness.
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Freedom isn't the right or ability to do whatever you please. Freedom comes from understanding the limits of our own power and the inherent limits set in place by nature. By accepting life's limits and inevitabilities and working with them rather than fighting them, you become truly free.
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We should do everything both cautiously and confidently at the same time.
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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.
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If you would be good, first believe that you are bad.
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The materials are indifferent, but the use we make of them is not a matter of indifference.
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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.
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It is impossible that happiness, and yearning for what is not present, should ever be united.
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What is it that every man seeks? To be secure, to be happy, to do what he pleases without restraint and without compulsion.
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We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
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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?
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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.
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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.