Epictetus Quotes
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You will do the greatest service 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 rather than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses.
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We are not disturbed by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens to us.
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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 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.
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To a longer and worse life, a shorter and better is by all means to be preferred.
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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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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.
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There is a fine circumstance connected with the character of a Cynic,-that he must be beaten like an ass, and yet when beaten must love those who beat him, as the father, as the brother of all.
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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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If you see anybody wail and complain, call him a slave, though he be clad in purple.
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It is more necessary for the soul to be cured than the body; for it is better to die than to live badly.
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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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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.
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He is a drunkard who takes more than three glasses though he be not drunk.
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It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
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We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope.
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Upon all occasions we ought to have these maxims ready at hand:
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You become what you give your attention to...If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest.
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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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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.
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What is a child? Ignorance. What is a child? Want of instruction.
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God has entrusted me with myself.
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Living a good life leads to enduring happiness. Goodness in and of itself is the practice AND the reward.
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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.