Epictetus Quotes
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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.
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To get or not to get what we desire can be equally disappointing.
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Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.
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All religions must be tolerated... for every man must get to heaven in his own way.
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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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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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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.
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If you see anybody wail and complain, call him a slave, though he be clad in purple.
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Some things are up to us [eph' hêmin] and some things are not up to us. Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions–in short, whatever is our own doing. Our bodies are not up to us, nor are our possessions, our reputations, or our public offices, or, that is, whatever is not our own doing.
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Freedom is secured not by the fulfillment of one's desires, but by the removal of desire.
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We should do everything both cautiously and confidently at the same time.
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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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What is a child? Ignorance. What is a child? Want of instruction.
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Upon all occasions we ought to have these maxims ready at hand:
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It is impossible that happiness, and yearning for what is not present, should ever be united.
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Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
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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.
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We must be afraid of neither poverty nor exile nor imprisonment; of fear itself only should we be afraid.
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Nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back. For your own will is always within your control. Sickness may challenge your body. But are you merely your body? Lameness may impede your legs. But you are not merely your legs. Your will is bigger than your legs. Your will needn't be affected by an incident unless you let it.
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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.
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If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase.
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The appearance of things to the mind is the standard of every action to man.
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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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You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.