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It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.
Epictetus -
Who is not attracted by bright and pleasant children, to prattle, to creep, and to play with them?
Epictetus
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It is my business, to manage carefully and dexterously whatever happens.
Epictetus -
Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.
Epictetus -
The beginning of philosophy is the recognition of the conflict between opinions.
Epictetus -
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.
Epictetus -
When therefore we are hindered, or disturbed, or grieved, let us never attribute it to others, but to ourselves; that is, to our own principles. An uninstructed person will lay the fault of his own bad condition upon others. Someone just starting instruction will lay the fault on himself. Some who is perfectly instructed will place blame neither on others nor on himself.
Epictetus -
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
Epictetus
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It is the part of an uneducated person to blame others where he himself fares ill; to blame himself is the part of one whose education has begun; to blame neither another nor his own self is the part of one whose education is already complete.
Epictetus -
Do not so much be ashamed of that disgrace which proceeds from men's opinion as fly from that which comes from the truth.
Epictetus -
It is unreasonable to think we can earn rewards without being willing to pay their true price. It is always our choice whether or not we wish to pay the price for life's rewards.
Epictetus -
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.
Epictetus -
The best place to get help is from yourself.
Epictetus -
And are all profited by what they hear, or only some among them? So that it seems that there is an art of hearing as well as one of speaking. (81).
Epictetus
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Some of their faults men readily admit, but others not so readily.
Epictetus -
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.
Epictetus -
Not even on finding himself in a well-ordered house does a man step forward and say to himself, I must be master here! Else the lord of that house takes notice of it, and, seeing him insolently giving orders, drags him forth and chastises him. So it is also in the great City, the World. Here also is there a Lord of the House, who orders all things... (110).
Epictetus -
No man is free who is not master of himself.
Epictetus -
Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.
Epictetus -
When one maintains his proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals. What would you have, O man?
Epictetus
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Why, do you not know, then, that the origin of all human evils, and of baseness, and cowardice, is not death, but rather the fear of death?
Epictetus -
What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are.
Epictetus -
If you can make music with someone you don't need words. If you wish to be a writer, write.
Epictetus -
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.
Epictetus