Epictetus Quotes
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In trying to please other people, we find ourselves misdirected toward what lies outside our sphere of influence. In doing so, we lose our hold on our lifes purpose.
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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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We can't control the impressions others form about us, and the effort to do so only debases our character.
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The materials are indifferent, but the use we make of them is not a matter of indifference.
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It was the first and most striking characteristic of Socrates never to become heated in discourse, never to utter an injurious or insulting word -- on the contrary, he persistently bore insult from others and thus put an end to the fray.
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The flourishing life cannot be achieved until we moderate our desires and see how superficial and fleeting they are.
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If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.
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No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.
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You have not stirred my spirit. For what can I see in you to stir me, as a spirited horse will stir a judge of horses? Your body? That you maltreat. Your dress? That is luxurious. Your behavior, your look?-Nothing whatsoever. (81).
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Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.
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If someone speaks badly of you, do not defend yourself against the accusations, but reply; "you obviously don't know about my other vices, otherwise you would have mentioned these as well.
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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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Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.
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In order to please others, we loose our hold on our life's purpose.
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First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
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The foolish and the uneducated have little use for freedom. Only the educated are free.
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You lose only the things you have.
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What you shun enduring yourself, attempt not to impose on others. You shun slavery-beware of enslaving others! If you can endure to do that, one would think you had been once upon a time a slave yourself. For Vice has nothing in common with virtue, nor Freedom with slavery. (41).
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If any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone. For God hath made all men to enjoy felicity and constancy of good.
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To live a life of virtue, you have to become consistent, even when it isn't convenient, comfortable, or easy.
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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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Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.
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The soul's impurity consists in bad judgements, and purification consists in producing in it right judgements, and the pure soul is one which has right judgements, for this alone is proof against confusion and pollution in its functions.
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What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others.