Epictetus Quotes
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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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The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.
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If anyone should tell you that a particular person has spoken critically of you, don't bother with excuses or defenses. Just smile and reply, "I guess that person doesn't know about all my other faults. Otherwise, he wouldn't have mentioned only these."
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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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Who is not attracted by bright and pleasant children, to prattle, to creep, and to play with them?
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Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control. Stop aspiring to be anyone other than your own best self: for that does fall within your control.
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When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it. It is not the things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance. Things and people are not what we wish them to be nor are they what they seem to be. They are what they are.
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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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Unless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed.
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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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No one who is in a state of fear or sorrow or tension is free, but whosoever is delivered from sorrows or fears or anxieties is at the same time delivered from servitude.
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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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When you have decided that a thing ought to be done and are doing it, never avoid bein seen doing it, though many shall form an unfavorable opinion about it. For if it is not right to do it, avoid doing the thing; but if it is right, why are you afraid of those who shall find fault wrongly?
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It’s time to stop being vague. If you wish to be an extraordinary person, if you wish to be wise, then you should explicitly identify the kind of person you aspire to become.
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If a person gave your body to any stranger he met on his way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in handing over your own mind to be confused and mystified by anyone who happens to verbally attack you? (28) tr. Elizabeth Carter
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What is a child? Ignorance. What is a child? Want of instruction.
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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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When your thoughts, words, and deeds form a seamless fabric, you streamline your efforts and thus eliminate worry and dread.
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It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
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Happiness is an equivalent for all troublesome things.
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To know that you do not know and to be willing to admit that you do not know without sheepishly apologizing is real strength and sets the stage for learning and progress in any endeavor.
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Every art and every faculty contemplates certain things as its principal objects.
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Happiness and personal fulfillment are the natural consequences of doing the right thing.
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Have the wisdom to know what cannot be changed, and the strength to change what can.