Epictetus Quotes
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Neither the victories of the Olympic Games nor those achieved in battles make the man happy. The only victories that make him happy are those achieved against himself. Temptations and tests are combats. You have beaten one, two, many times; still fight. If you defeat at last you will be happy your entire life, as if you have always defeated.
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Be free from grief not through insensibility like the irrational animals, nor through want of thought like the foolish, but like a man of virtue by having reason as the consolation of grief.
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Freedom and happiness come from understanding - and working with - our limits. Begin at once a program of self-mastery. Stick with your purpose. Do not seek external approval. Do not worry about anything outside of your control. The only things you command are your thoughts and actions. We choose our response. Stop aspiring to be anyone other than your own best self: for that does fall within your control.
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If you seek truth you will not seek victory by dishonorable means, and if you find truth you will become invincible.
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Yet God hath not only granted these faculties, by which we may bear every event without being depressed or broken by it, but like a good prince and a true father, hath placed their exercise above restraint, compulsion, or hindrance, and wholly without our own control.
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When you do anything from a clear judgment that it ought to be done, never shun the being seen to do it, even though the world should make a wrong supposition about it; for, if you don't act right, shun the action itself; but, if you do, why are you afraid of those who censure you wrongly? (35).
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When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.
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It's so simple really: If you say you're going to do something, do it. If you start something, finish it.
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We are not to lead events, but to follow them.
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If you think you control things that are in the control of others, you will lament. You will be disturbed and you will blame both gods and men.
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When we name things correctly, we comprehend them correctly, without adding information or judgements that aren't there. Does someone bathe quickly? Don't say be bathes poorly, but quickly. Name the situation as it is, don't filter it through your judgments. Give your assent only to that which is actually true.
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What disturbs people, these are not things, but the judgments relating to things.
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Desire and happiness cannot live together.
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It is not my place in society that makes me well off, but my judgements, and these I can carry with me... These alone are my own and cannot be taken away.
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When men are unhappy, they do not imagine they can ever cease to be so; and when some calamity has fallen on them, they do not see how they can get rid of it. Nevertheless, both arrive; and the gods have ordered it so, in the end men seek it from the gods.
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Survey and test a prospective action before undertaking it. Before you proceed, step back and look at the big picture, lest you act rashly on raw impulse.
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If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother.
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Seek to be the purple thread in the long white gown.
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Do nothing in a depressed mood, nor as one afflicted, nor as thinking that you are in misery, for no one compels you to that.
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What is a good person? One who achieves tranquillity by having formed the habit of asking on every occasion, "what is the right thing to do now?"
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If you have anything better to be doing when death overtakes you, get to work on that.
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Never in any case say I have lost such a thing, but I have returned it. Is your child dead? It is a return. Is your wife dead? It is a return. Are you deprived of your estate? Is not this also a return?
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Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.
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If you would be well spoken of, learn to be well-spoken; and having learnt to be well- spoken, strive also to be well-doing; so shall you succeed in being well spoken of.