Epictetus Quotes
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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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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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Against specious appearances we must set clear convictions, bright and ready for use. When death appears as an evil, we ought immediately to remember that evils are things to be avoided, but death is inevitable.
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Desire and happiness cannot live together.
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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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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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Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.
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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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No living being is held by anything so strongly as its own needs.
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It is your own convictions which compels you; that is, choice compels choice.
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Getting distracted by trifles is the easiest thing in the world… Focus on your main duty.
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Freedom and happiness are won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.
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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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It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
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Seek to be the purple thread in the long white gown.
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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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We are not to lead events, but to follow them.
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If your heart is quite set upon a crown, make and put on one of roses, for it will make the prettier appearance.
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It has been ordained that there be summer and winter, abundance and dearth, virtue and vice, and all such opposites for the harmony of the whole, and (Zeus) has given each of us a body, property, and companions.
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Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly your own concern, and be clear that what belongs to others is their business and none of yours.
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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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It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance.
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Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but accustom yourself to something else.
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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?