Epictetus Quotes
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Freedom is the right to live as we wish.
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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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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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Each man's life is a kind of campaign, and a long and complicated one at that. You have to maintain the character of a soldier, and do each separate act at the bidding of the General.
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The origin of sorrow is this: to wish for something that does not come to pass.
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The beginning of philosophy is the recognition of the conflict between opinions.
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I must die. I must be imprisoned. I must suffer exile. But must I die groaning? Must I whine as well? Can anyone hinder me from going into exile with a smile? The master threatens to chain me: what say you? Chain me? My leg you will chain--yes, but not my will--no, not even Zeus can conquer that.
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If what the philosophers say be true,-that all men's actions proceed from one source; that as they assent from a persuasion that a thing is so, and dissent from a persuasion that it is not, and suspend their judgment from a persuasion that it is uncertain,-so likewise they seek a thing from a persuasion that it is for their advantage.
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Men are not troubled by things themselves, but by their thoughts about them.
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Freedom and happiness come from understanding - and working with - our limits. Begin at once a program of self-mastery. Stick with your purpose. Do not seek external approval. Do not worry about anything outside of your control. The only things you command are your thoughts and actions. We choose our response. Stop aspiring to be anyone other than your own best self: for that does fall within your control.
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From now on practice saying to everything that appears unpleasant: You are merely an appearance and NOT what you appear to be.
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Inner peace begins when we stop saying of things, 'I have lost it' and instead say, 'It has been returned to where it came from.' Why should it be any concern of yours who gives your things back to the world that gave them to you? The important thing is to take great care with what you have while the world lets you have it.
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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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There is only one thing for which God has sent me into the world, and that is to develop every kind of virtue or strength, and there is nothing in all the world that I cannot use for this purpose.
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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 you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase. At first, keep quiet and count the days when you were not angry: "I used to be angry every day, then every other day: next, every two, then every three days!" and if you succeed in passing thirty days, sacrifice to the gods in thanksgiving.
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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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Do not strive for things occurring to occur as you wish, but wish the things occurring as they occur, and you will flow well.
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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.
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I laugh at those who think they can damage me. They do not know who I am, they do not know what I think, they cannot even touch the things which are really mine and with which I live.
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On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.
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Watch yourself as you go about your daily business and later reflect on what you saw, trying to identify the sources of distress in your life and thinking about how to avoid that distress.
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The best place to get help is from yourself.
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When one maintains his proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals. What would you have, O man?