Epictetus Quotes
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To get or not to get what we desire can be equally disappointing.
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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.
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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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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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We must be afraid of neither poverty nor exile nor imprisonment; of fear itself only should we be afraid.
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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.
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The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.
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He who is not happy with little will never be happy with much.
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We should do everything both cautiously and confidently at the same time.
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God has made all men to be happy.
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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.
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When the Idea, of any Pleasure strikes your Imagination... let that time be employed in making a just Computation between, the duration of the Pleasure, and that of the Repentance sure to follow it.
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As in walking it is your great care not to run your foot upon a nail, or to tread awry, and strain your leg; so let it be in all the affairs of human life, not to hurt your mind or offend your judgment. And this rule, if observed carefully in all your deportment, will be a mighty security to you in your undertakings.
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The beginning of philosophy is the recognition of the conflict between opinions.
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Do not laugh much or often or unrestrainedly.
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The pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us greatest delight.
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The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will.
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Authentic happiness is always independent of external conditions.
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Never say of anything I have lost it, only say that I have given it back.
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Forgiveness is better than revenge, for forgiveness is the sign of a gentle nature, but revenge is the sign of a savage nature. the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.
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What disturbs people's minds are not events but their judgments on events.
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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?
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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.
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Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.