Epictetus Quotes
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Remember that you are an actor in a play, and that the Playwright chooses the manner of it: If he wants you to act a poor man you must act the part with all your powers; and so if your part be a cripple or a magistrate or a plain man. For your business is to act the character that is given you and act it well. The choice of the cast is Another's.
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I am always content with what happens; for I know that what God chooses is better than what I choose.
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Everything has two handles,-one by which it may be borne; another by which it cannot.
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As you think, so you become.....Our busy minds are forever jumping to conclusions, manufacturing and interpreting signs that aren't there.
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Don't regard what anyone says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours.
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A thing either is what it appears to be; or it is not, but yet appears to be; or it is, but does not appear to be; or it is not, and does not appear to be.
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By accepting life's limits and inevitabilities and working with them rather than fighting them, we become free.
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Covetousness like jealousy, when it has taken root, never leaves a person, but with their life. Cowardice is the dread of what will happen.
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No great thing is created suddenly.
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This whole world is one great City, and one is the substance whereof it is fashioned: a certain period indeed there needs must be, while these give place to those; some must perish for others to succeed; some move and some abide: yet all is full of friends-first God, then Men, whom Nature hath bound by ties of kindred each to each. (123).
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At this time is freedom anything but the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.
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Consider first the nature of the business in hand; then examine thy own nature, whether thou hast strength to undertake it.
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Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.
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What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others.
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It is better to advise than upbraid, for the one corrects the erring; the other only convicts them.
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Nothing outside the will can hinder or harm the will; it can only harm itself. If then we accept this, and, when things go amiss, are inclined to blame ourselves, remembering that judgment alone can disturb our peace and constancy, I swear to you by all the gods that we have made progress.
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A soul which is conversant with virtue is like an ever flowing source, for it is pure and tranquil and potable and sweet and communicative (social) and rich and harmless and free from mischief.
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He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
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When a youth was giving himself airs in the Theatre and saying, 'I am wise, for I have conversed with many wise men,' Epictetus replied, 'I too have conversed with many rich men, yet I am not rich!’.
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It takes more than just a good looking body. You've got to have the heart and soul to go with it.
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No matter what happens, it is within my power to turn it to my advantage.
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Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcome.
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Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an humble and grateful mind.
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Nothing is in reality either pleasant or unpleasant by nature but all things become so through habit.