Epictetus Quotes
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Cowardice, the dread of what will happen.
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Avoid banquets which are given by strangers an ignorant persons. But if there is ever occasion to join them, let your attention be carefully fixed, that you slip not into the manner of the vulgar (the uninstructed).
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It is the act of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition; it is the act of one who has begun to be instructed, to lay the blame on himself; and of one whose instruction is completed, neither to blame another, nor himself. (5) tr. George Long (1888).
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Does a man reproach thee for being proud or ill-natured, envious or conceited, ignorant or detracting? Consider with thyself whether his reproaches are true. If they are not, consider that thou art not the person whom he reproaches, but that he reviles an imaginary being, and perhaps loves what thou really art, though he hates what thou appearest to be.
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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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Any person capable of angering you becomes your master.
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Act well your given part; the choice rests not with you.
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Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to a humble and grateful mind.
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It is the act of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition; it is the act of one who has begun to be instructed, to lay the blame on himself; and of one whose instruction is completed, neither to blame another, nor himself.
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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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Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, the part of a swan.
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Don't seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.
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Ruin and recovering are both from within.
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In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.
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There are some things which men confess with ease, and others with difficulty.
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Confidence in nonsense is a requirement for the creative process.
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I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?
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Common and vulgar people ascribe all ills that they feel to others; people of little wisdom ascribe to themselves; people of much wisdom, to no one.
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If I was a nightingale I would sing like a nightingale; if a swan, like a swan. But since I am a rational creature my role is to praise God.
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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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Whoever is going to listen to the philosophers needs a considerable practice in listening.
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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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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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What disturbs and alarms man are not the things, but his opinions and fancies about the things.