Epictetus > Quotes

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

“If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.”
― Epictetus

“Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
― Epictetus

“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
― Epictetus

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

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

“First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do.”
― Epictetus

“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 Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness, and Effectiveness

“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

“He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.”
― Epictetus

“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems”
― 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

“People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.”
― Epictetus

“It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
― Epictetus

“First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.”
― Epictetus

“Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself.”
― Epictetus

“All religions must be tolerated... for every man must get to heaven in his own way.”
― Epictetus

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

“Only the educated are free.”
― 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

“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

“Seek not the good in external things;seek it in yourselves.”
― 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

“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
― Epictetus

“Do not try to seem wise to others. ”
― Epictetus

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

“Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.”
― Epictetus

“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

“It is not so much what happens to you as how you think about what happens."
Epictetus”
― Epictetus

“You are a little soul carrying around a corpse”
― Epictetus

“No man is free who is not master of himself.”
― 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, Discourses, Books 1-2

“A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single
hope”
― Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of 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

“Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to.”
― Epictetus

“Don't seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.”
― Epictetus

“If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write.”
― 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

“I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?”
― Epictetus

“Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.”
― Epictetus

“Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and be silent. ”
― 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

“We are not disturbed by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens to us.”
― Epictetus

“Asked, Who is the rich man? Epictetus replied, �He who is content.”
― Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself and in no instance bypass the discriminations of reason? You have been given the principles that you ought to endorse, and you have endorsed them. What kind of teacher, then, are you still waiting for in order to refer your self-improvement to him? You are no longer a boy, but a full-grown man. If you are careless and lazy now and keep putting things off and always deferring the day after which you will attend to yourself, you will not notice that you are making no progress, but you will live and die as someone quite ordinary.
From now on, then, resolve to live as a grown-up who is making progress, and make whatever you think best a law that you never set aside. And whenever you encounter anything that is difficult or pleasurable, or highly or lowly regarded, remember that the contest is now: you are at the Olympic Games, you cannot wait any longer, and that your progress is wrecked or preserved by a single day and a single event. That is how Socrates fulfilled himself by attending to nothing except reason in everything he encountered. And you, although you are not yet a Socrates, should live as someone who at least wants to be a Socrates.”
― Epictetus

“It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance”
― 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

“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

“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

“If you wish to be a writer, write.”
― Epictetus