Epictetus Quotes

In order to please others, we loose our hold on our life's purpose.

Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.

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

You ought to choose both physician and friend, not the most agreeable, but the most useful.

Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcome.

It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?

The soul is unwillingly deprived of truth.

When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.

The flourishing life cannot be achieved until we moderate our desires and see how superficial and fleeting they are.

Confident because of our caution

What is death? A scary mask. Take it off-see, it doesn't bite.

Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.

Whoever wants to be free, therefore, let him not want or avoid anything that is up to others. Otherwise he will necessarily be a slave.

It is wicked to withdraw from being useful to the needy, and cowardly to give way to the worthless.

Men are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen.

If a person had delivered up your body to some passer-by, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in delivering up your own mind to any reviler, to be disconcerted and confounded?

Two principles we should always have ready — that there is nothing good or evil save in the will; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them.

He is free who lives as he wishes to live; who is neither subject to compulsion nor to hindrance, nor to force; whose movements to action are not impeded, whose desires attain their purpose, and who does not fall into that which he would avoid.

Know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance sake, but for the sake of having done right?

Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.

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

When your thoughts, words, and deeds form a seamless fabric, you streamline your efforts and thus eliminate worry and dread.

I laugh at those who think they can damage me. They do not know who I am, they do not know what I think, they cannot even touch the things which are really mine and with which I live.

Don't be prideful with any excellence that is not your own

If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.

First tell yourself what you want to be, then do what you need to do.

People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.

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

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

Everything has two handles; the one soft and manageable, the other such as will not endure to be touched. If then your brother do you an injury, do not take it by the hot hard handle, by representing to yourself all the aggravating circumstances of the fact; but look rather on the soft side, and extenuate it as much as is possible, by considering the nearness of the relation, and the long friendship and familiarity between you--obligations to kindness which a single provocation ought not to dissolve. And thus you will take the accident by its manageable handle.

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

It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.

You are but an appearance, and not absolutely the thing you appear to be.

When a youth was giving himself airs in the Theatre and saying, 'I am wise, for I have conversed with many wise men,' Epictetus replied, 'I too have conversed with many rich men, yet I am not rich!’.

We must be afraid of neither poverty nor exile nor imprisonment; of fear itself only should we be afraid.

What is yours is to play the assigned part well. But to choose it belongs to someone else

Nothing is in reality either pleasant or unpleasant by nature but all things become so through habit

I have to die. If it is now, well then I die now; if later, then now I will take my lunch, since the hour for lunch has arrived - and dying I will tend to later.

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

Give yourself fully to your endeavors. Decide to construct your character through excellent actions and determine to pay the price of a worthy goal. The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths.

If you see anybody wail and complain, call him a slave, though he be clad in purple.

If you wish to live a life free from sorrow, think of what is going to happen as if it had already happened.

-….when things seem to have reached that stage, merely say “I won’t play any longer”, and take your departure; but if you stay, stop lamenting.

Never look for your work in one place and your progress in another.

If you would improve, submit to be considered wihout sense and foolish with respect to externals. Wish to be considered to know nothing; and if you shall seem to someone to be a person of importance, distrust yourself.

Sickness is a hindrance to the body, but not to your ability to choose, unless that is your choice. Lameness is a hindrance to the leg, but not to your ability to choose. Say this to yourself with regard to everything that happens, then you will see such obstacles as hindrances to something else, but not to yourself.

Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man's task.

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.