Epictetus Quotes
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If you can make music with someone you don't need words. If you wish to be a writer, write.
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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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Give thyself more diligently to reflection: know thyself: take counsel with the Godhead; without God put thine hand into nothing. (115).
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Not every difficult and dangerous thing is suitable for training, but only that which is conducive to success in achieving the object of our effort.
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There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
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First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
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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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Never look for your work in one place and your progress in another.
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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).
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Freedom is the right to live as we wish.
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A guide, on finding a man who has lost his way, brings him back to the right path—he does not mock and jeer at him and then take himself off. You also must show the unlearned man the truth, and you will see that he will follow. But so long as you do not show it him, you should not mock, but rather feel your own incapacity.
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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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The origin of sorrow is this: to wish for something that does not come to pass.
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You know yourself what you are worth in your own eyes; and at what price you will sell yourself. For men sell themselves at various prices. This is why, when Florus was deliberating whether he should appear at Nero's shows, taking part in the performance himself, Agrippinus replied, 'Appear by all means.' And when Florus inquired, 'But why do not you appear?' he answered, 'Because I do not even consider the question.'
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You ought to choose both physician and friend, not the most agreeable, but the most useful.
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A half-hearted spirit has no power. Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Average people enter into their endeavors headlong and without care.
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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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Two principles we should always have ready — that there is nothing good or evil save in the will; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them.
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Don't demand or expect that events happen as you would wish them do. Accept events as they actually happen. That way, peace is possible.
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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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It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.
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Do not try to seem wise to others.
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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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No man is free who is not master of himself.