Epictetus Quotes
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Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.
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A man that seeks truth and loves it must be reckoned precious to any human society.
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It were no slight attainment could we merely fulfil what the nature of man implies.
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Seek to be the purple thread in the long white gown.
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It is your own convictions which compels you; that is, choice compels choice.
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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 are won by disregarding things that lie beyond our 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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Even as bad actors cannot sing alone, but only in chorus: so some cannot walk alone. Man, if thou art aught, strive to walk alone and hold converse with yourself, instead of skulking in the chorus! at length think; look around thee; bestir thyself, that thou mayest know who thou art! (103).
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Our duties naturally emerge form such fundamental relations as our families, neighborhoods, workplaces, our state or nation. Make it your regular habit to consider your roles-parent, child, neighbor, citizen, leader-and the natural duties that arise from them. Once you know who you are and to whom you are linked, you will know what to do.
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The cause of all human evils is the not being able to apply general principles to special cases.
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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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No living being is held by anything so strongly as its own needs.
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The foolish and the uneducated have little use for freedom. Only the educated are free.
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We are not to lead events, but to follow them.
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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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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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Attach yourself to what is spiritually superior, regardless of what other people think or do. Hold to your true aspirations no matter what is going on around you.
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Your master is he who controls that on which you have set your heart or wish to avoid.
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If a person gave your body to any stranger he met on his way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in handing over your own mind to be confused and mystified by anyone who happens to verbally attack you? (28) tr. Elizabeth Carter
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When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it; you can either accept it or resent it.
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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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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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Learn to distinguish what you can and can't control. Within our control are our own opinions, aspirations, desires and the things that repel us. They are directly subject to our influence.