Epictetus Quotes
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Difficulty shows what men are.
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The beginning of philosophy is the recognition of the conflict between opinions.
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If a man would pursue Philosophy, his first task is to throw away conceit. For it is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he has a conceit that he already knows.
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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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If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.
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If you seek Truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found Truth, you need not fear being defeated.
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Every art and every faculty contemplates certain things as its principal objects.
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You are a principal work, a fragment of [Goddess herself], you have in yourself a part of [her]. Why then are you ignorant of your high birth?
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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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In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake it.
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He who is not happy with little will never be happy with much.
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You can be invincible, if you enter into no contest in which it is not in your power to conquer.
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Never say of anything I have lost it, only say that I have given it back.
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The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.
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He who exercises wisdom exercises the knowledge which is about God.
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Not things, but opinions about things, trouble men.
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Practice yourself, for heaven's sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.
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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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Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one that is longer but of less account!
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It is hard to combine and unite these two qualities, the carefulness of one who is affected by circumstances, and the intrepidity of one who heeds them not. But it is not impossible: else were happiness also impossible.
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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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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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Once you know who you are and to whom you are linked, you will know what to do.
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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.