Epictetus Quotes
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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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When we are invited to a banquet, we take what is set before us; and were one to call upon his host to set fish upon the table or sweet things, he would be deemed absurd. Yet in a word, we ask the Gods for what they do not give; and that, although they have given us so many things! (35).
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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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Every art and every faculty contemplates certain things as its principal objects.
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Wherever any one is against his will, that is to him a prison.
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The wise realize that some things are within their control, and most things are not. They learn early on to distinguish between what they can and can't regulate.
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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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God has made all men to be happy.
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Do not laugh much or often or unrestrainedly.
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The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will.
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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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Think of God oftener than you breathe.
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Act your part with honor.
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Have the wisdom to know what cannot be changed, and the strength to change what can.
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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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If I can acquire money and also keep myself modest and faithful and magnanimous, point out the way, and I will acquire it.
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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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Happiness and personal fulfillment are the natural consequences of doing the right thing.
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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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An ignorant person is inclined to blame others for his own misfortune. To blame oneself is proof of progress. But the wise man never has to blame another or himself.
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Books are the training weights of the mind.
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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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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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You will do the greatest service to the state if you shall raise, not the roofs of the houses, but the souls of the citizens: for it is better that great souls should dwell in small houses rather than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses.