Epictetus Quotes
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You ought to choose both physician and friend, not the most agreeable, but the most useful.
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Focus not on what he or she does, but on keeping to your higher purpose. Your own purpose should seek harmony with nature itself. For this is the true road to freedom.
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In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.
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No great thing is created suddenly. There must be time. Give your best and always be kind.
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Freedom is the right to live as we wish.
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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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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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When one maintains his proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals. What would you have, O man?
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If a Cynic is an object of pity, he seems a mere beggar; all turn away, all are offended at him. Nor should be be slovenly of look, so as not to scare men from him in this way either; on the contrary, his very roughness should be clean and attractive. (118).
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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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When our friends are present we ought to treat them well; and when they are absent, to speak of them well.
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Who exactly do you want to be? What kind of person do you want to be? What are your personal ideals? Whom do you admire? What are their special traits that you would make your own It's time to stop being vague. If you wish to be an extraordinary person, if you wish to become wise, then you should explicitly identify the kind of person you aspire to become. If you have a daybook, write down who you're trying to be, so that you can refer to this self-determination. Precisely describe the demeanor you want to adopt so that you may preserve it when you are by yourself or with other people.
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Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.
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Everything has two handles, one by which it may be borne, the other by which it may not. If your brother sin against you lay not hold of it by the handle of his injustice, for by that it may not be borne: but rather by this, that he is your brother, the comrade of your youth; and thus you will lay hold on it so that it may be borne. (174).
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Do not so much be ashamed of that disgrace which proceeds from men's opinion as fly from that which comes from the truth.
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Seemeth it nothing to you, never to accuse, never to blame either God or Man? to wear ever the same countenance in going forth as in coming in? This was the secret of Socrates: yet he never said that he knew or taught anything... Who amongst you makes this his aim? Were it indeed so, you would gladly endure sickness, hunger, aye, death itself. (85).
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You may be always victorious if you will never enter into any contest where the issue does not wholly depend upon yourself.
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The origin of sorrow is this: to wish for something that does not come to pass.
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Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet. As something is being passed around it comes to you; stretch out your hand, take a portion of it politely. It passes on; do not detain it. Or it has not come to you yet; do not project your desire to meet it, but wait until it comes in front of you. So act toward children, so toward a wife, so toward office, so toward wealth.
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Concerning the Gods, there are those who deny the very existence of the Godhead; others say that it exists, but neither bestirs nor concerns itself not has forethought far anything. A third party attribute to it existence and forethought, but only for great and heavenly matters, not for anything that is on earth. A fourth party admit things on earth as well as in heaven, but only in general, and not with respect to each individual. A fifth, of whom were Ulysses and Socrates, are those that cry: -- I move not without Thy knowledge!
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Truth is a thing immortal and perpetual, and it gives to us a beauty that fades not away in time, nor does it take away the freedom of speech which proceeds from justice; but it gives to us the knowledge of what is just and lawful, separating from them the unjust and refuting them.
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If a man is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault, for God made all men to be happy.
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Who is there whom bright and agreeable children do not attract to play and creep and prattle with them?
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Never look for your work in one place and your progress in another.