"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."
— Epictetus

"First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do.
"
— Epictetus

"Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants. "
— Epictetus

"Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it."
— Epictetus

"People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them."
— Epictetus

"There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will. "
— Epictetus

"The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best."
— Epictetus

"To accuse others for one's own misfortune is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete."
— Epictetus

"First say to yourself what you would be, then do what you have to do."
— Epictetus

"He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at."
— Epictetus

"Difficulty shows what men are. Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man. Why? So that you may become an Olympic conqueror; but it is not accomplished without sweat."
— Epictetus (The Discourses of Epictetus: Volume 1)

""Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents." Translation by Sharon Lebell"
— Epictetus (The Art of Living: The Classic Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness)

"If you would cure anger, do not feed it. Say to yourself: 'I used to be angry every day; then every other day; now only every third or fourth day.' When you reach thirty days offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods."
— Epictetus

"Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself."
— Epictetus

"Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems"
— Epictetus

"The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. "
— Epictetus

"If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write."
— Epictetus

"Do not try to seem wise to others. "
— Epictetus

"Other people's views and troubles can be contagious. Don't sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others." "
— Epictetus

"Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one
that is longer but of less account!"
— Epictetus (The Golden Sayings of Epictetus)

"Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to."
— Epictetus

"If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it."
— Epictetus

"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to external things. Don't wish to be thought to know anything; and even if you appear to be somebody important to others, distrust yourself. For, it is difficult to both keep your faculty of choice in a state conformable to nature, and at the same time acquire external things. But while you are careful about the one, you must of necessity neglect the other"
— Epictetus

"Any person capable of angering you becomes your master;
he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him."
— Epictetus

"Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and be silent. "
— Epictetus

"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." "
— Epictetus

"So you wish to conquer in the Olympic Games, my friend? And I, too... But first mark the conditions and the consequences. You will have to put yourself under discipline; to eat by rule, to avoid cakes and sweetmeats; to take exercise at the appointed hour whether you like it or not, in cold and heat; to abstain from cold drinks and wine at your will. Then, in the conflict itself you are likely enough to dislocate your wrist or twist your ankle, to swallow a great deal of dust, to be severely thrashed, and after all of these things, to be defeated."
— Epictetus (The Discourses Of Epictetus With The Encheiridion And Fragments)

"If evil be said of thee, and it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it."
— Epictetus

"First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do.
"
— Epictetus

"To you, all you have seems small: to me, all I have seems great.
Your desire is insatiable, mine is satisfied. See children thrusting
their hands into a narrow-necked jar, and striving to pull out
the nuts and figs it contains: if they fill the hand, they cannot
pull it out again, and then they fall to tears.— “Let go a few of
them, and then you can draw out the rest!”— You, too, let your
desire go! covet not many things, and you will obtain."
— Epictetus (The Golden Sayings of Epictetus)

"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."
— Epictetus (Discourses, Books 1-2)

"Remind thyself that he whom thou lovest is mortal — that what
thou lovest is not thine own; it is given thee for the present, not
irrevocably nor for ever, but even as a fig or a bunch of grapes at
the appointed season of the year"
— Epictetus

"Remember that not the love of power and wealth sets us under
the heel of others, but even the love of tranquillity, of leisure,
of change of scene—of learning in general, it matters not what
the outward thing may be—to set store by it is to place thyself
in subjection to another. Where is the difference then between
desiring to be a Senator, and desiring not to be one: between
thirsting for office and thirsting to be quit of it?"
— Epictetus (The Golden Sayings of Epictetus)

"Asked, Who is the rich man? Epictetus replied, “He who is content."
— Epictetus (The Golden Sayings of Epictetus)

"Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may
hear from others twice as much as we speak."
— Epictetus

"A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single
hope"
— Epictetus (The Golden Sayings of Epictetus)

"Even as the Sun doth not wait for prayers and incantations to
rise, but shines forth and is welcomed by all: so thou also wait
not for clapping of hands and shouts and praise to do thy duty;
nay, do good of thine own accord, and thou wilt be loved like the
Sun."
— Epictetus (The Golden Sayings of Epictetus)

""He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has." "
— Epictetus

"“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”


"
— Epictetus

""To accuse others for one's own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.""
— Epictetus

""Only the educated are free." "
— Epictetus

"Seek not the good in external things;seek it in yourselves."
— Epictetus

"Seek not the good in external things;seek it in yourselves."
— Epictetus

"You know yourself what you are worth in your own eyes; and at what price you will sell yourself. For men sell themselves at various prices. This is why, when Florus was deliberating whether he should appear at Nero's shows, taking part in the performance himself, Agrippinus replied, 'Appear by all means.' And when Florus inquired, 'But why do not you appear?' he answered, 'Because I do not even consider the question.' For the man who has once stooped to consider such questions, and to reckon up the value of external things, is not far from forgetting what manner of man he is."
— Epictetus (The Golden Sayings of Epictetus)

"Concerning the Gods, there are those who deny the very existence of the Godhead; others say that it exists, but neither bestirs nor concerns itself not has forethought far anything. A third party attribute to it existence and forethought, but only for great and heavenly matters, not for anything that is on earth. A fourth party admit things on earth as well as in heaven, but only in general, and not with respect to each individual. A fifth, of whom were Ulysses and Socrates, are those that cry: --
'I move not without Thy knowledge!'"
— Epictetus

"It Is Impossible for Anyone to Begin to Learn What He Thinks He Already Knows."
— Epictetus

"Demand not that things happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do, and you will go on well."
— Epictetus (The Discourses of Epictetus - The Handbook - Fragments)

"He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. "
— Epictetus

"People are not disturbed by things, but by the views which they take of things."
— Epictetus

"Never say that I have taken it, only that I have given it back."
— Epictetus