Epictetus Quotes
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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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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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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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Unremarkable lives are marked by the fear of not looking capable when trying something new.
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'If the room is smoky, if only moderately, I will stay; if there is too much smoke I will go. Remember this, keep a firm hold on it, the door is always open.'
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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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Let thy speech of God be renewed day by day, aye, rather than thy meat and drink.
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It is not so much what happens to you as how you think about what happens."
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First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
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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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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 our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous -- even death is terrible only if we fear it.
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Wish that everything should come about just as it does.
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Remember that you are in actor in a play of such a kind that the author chooses...For this is your duty, to act well the part that is given to you; but to select the part belongs to another.
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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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Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.
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Whoever wants to be free, therefore, let him not want or avoid anything that is up to others. Otherwise he will necessarily be a slave.
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It is better by assenting to truth to conquer opinion, than by assenting to opinion to be conquered by truth.
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Authentic happiness is always independent of external conditions. Vigilantly practice polite indifference to that which we can't control. Your happiness can only be found within.
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Contentment comes not so much from great wealth as from few wants.
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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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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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Some of their faults men readily admit, but others not so readily.
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Whoever then wishes to be free, let him neither wish for anything nor avoid anything which depends on others: if he does not observe this rule, he must be a slave.