Epictetus Quotes
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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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First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
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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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With ills unending strives the putter off.
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Getting distracted by trifles is the easiest thing in the world… Focus on your main duty.
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All human beings seek the happy life, but many confuse the means - for example, wealth and status - with that life itself. This misguided focus on the means to a good life makes people get further from the happy life. The really worthwhile things are the virtuous activities that make up the happy life, not the external means that may seem to produce it.
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Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.
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What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others.
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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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Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.
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No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.
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In order to please others, we loose our hold on our life's purpose.
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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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It is not events that disturb the minds of men, but the view they take of them.
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What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance.
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You lose only the things you have.
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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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Be not swept off your feet by the vividness of the impression, but say, 'Impression, wait for me a little. Let me see what you are and what you represent. Let me try you.'
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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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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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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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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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What is learned without pleasure is forgotten without remorse.