Epictetus Quotes
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The pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us greatest delight.
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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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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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Bear in mind that you should conduct yourself in life as at a feast.
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Do not laugh much or often or unrestrainedly.
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Happiness is an equivalent for all troublesome things.
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Wherever any one is against his will, that is to him a prison.
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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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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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When your thoughts, words, and deeds form a seamless fabric, you streamline your efforts and thus eliminate worry and dread.
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Remember that you are an actor in a drama of such sort as the Author chooses: if short, then in a short one; if long, then in a long one. If it be His pleasure that you should enact a poor man, or a cripple, or a ruler, or a private citizen, see that you act it well. For this is your business, to act well the given part. But to choose it belongs to Another.
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No man is free who is not master of himself... Is freedom anything else than the power of living as we choose?
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Have the wisdom to know what cannot be changed, and the strength to change what can.
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What is a child? Ignorance. What is a child? Want of instruction.
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Does a Philosopher apply to people to come and hear him? does he not rather, of his own nature, attract those that will be benefited by him-like the sun that warms, and the food that sustains them? (120).
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Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not.
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Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words.
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Happiness and personal fulfillment are the natural consequences of doing the right thing.
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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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Let not another's disobedience to Nature become an ill to you; for you were not born to be depressed and unhappy with others, but to be happy with them. And if any is unhappy, remember that he is so for himself; for God made all men to enjoy felicity and peace.
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Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.
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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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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?