Epictetus Quotes
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'But to be hanged-is that not unendurable?' Even so, when a man feels that it is reasonable, he goes off and hangs himself.
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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.
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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.
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Who is not attracted by bright and pleasant children, to prattle, to creep, and to play with them?
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Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
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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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Freedom is the name of virtue: Slavery, of vice…. None is a slave whose acts are free.
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God has entrusted me with myself.
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Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.
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In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake it.
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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?"
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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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Try not to react merely in the moment. Pull back from the situation. Take a wider view. Compose yourself.
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In life our first job is this, to divide and distinguish things into two categories: externals I cannot control, but the choices I make with regard to them I do control. Where will I find good and bad? In me, in my choices.
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What disturbs people's minds are not events but their judgments on events.
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Only the educated are free.
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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.
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Opportunity beckons more surely when misfortune comes upon a person than it ever does when that person is riding the crest of a wave of success. It sharpens a person's wits, if that person will let it, enabling him or her to see more clearly and evaluate situations with a more knowledgeable judgment.
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The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.
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A ship should not be held by a single anchor; neither should life depend upon a single hope.
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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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Freedom and slavery, the one is the name of virtue, and the other of vice, and both are acts of the will.
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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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Confident because of our caution.