Epictetus Quotes

No man is free who is not master of himself.

We ought to flee the friendship of the wicked, and the enmity of the good.

When you want to hear a philosopher, do not say, 'You say nothing to me'; only show yourself worthy or fit to hear, and then you will see how you will move the speaker.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it; you can either accept it or resent it.

Fortify yourself with contentment, for this is an impregnable fortress.

Difficulty shows what men are.

When you have decided that a thing ought to be done and are doing it, never avoid bein seen doing it, though many shall form an unfavorable opinion about it. For if it is not right to do it, avoid doing the thing; but if it is right, why are you afraid of those who shall find fault wrongly?

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.

Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to a humble and grateful mind.

Men are not worried by things, but by their ideas about things. When we meet with difficulties, become anxious or troubled, let us not blame others, but rather ourselves. That is: our ideas about things.

We must ever bear in mind --that apart from the will there is nothing good or bad, and that we must not try to anticipate or to direct events, but merely to accept them with intelligence.

When you close your doors, and make darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; nay, God is within, and your genius is within. And what need have they of light to see what you are doing?

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.

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

Your master is he who controls that on which you have set your heart or wish to avoid.

As a man, casting off worn out garments taketh new ones, so the dweller in the body, entereth into ones that are new.

It is not things in themselves which trouble us, but our opinions of things.

We do not choose our own parts in life, and have nothing to do with those parts. Our duty is confined to playing them well.

There is only one thing for which God has sent me into the world, and that is to develop every kind of virtue or strength, and there is nothing in all the world that I cannot use for this purpose.

The best place to get help is from yourself.

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.

The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing.

Avoid banquets which are given by strangers an ignorant persons. But if there is ever occasion to join them, let your attention be carefully fixed, that you slip not into the manner of the vulgar (the uninstructed).

Everything has two handles,-one by which it may be borne; another by which it cannot.

Whoever is going to listen to the philosophers needs a considerable practice in listening.

Whoever then wishes to be free, let him neither wish for anything nor avoid anything which depends on others: if he does not observe this rule, he must be a slave.

Opportunity beckons more surely when misfortune comes upon a person than it ever does when that person is riding the crest of a wave of success. It sharpens a person's wits, if that person will let it, enabling him or her to see more clearly and evaluate situations with a more knowledgeable judgment.

No man is free who is not master of himself... Is freedom anything else than the power of living as we choose?

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

No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.

When you actively engage in gradually refining yourself, you retreat from your lazy ways of covering yourself or making excuses. Instead of feeling a persistent current of low-level shame, you move forward by using the creative possibilities of this moment, your current situation.

Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.

God has entrusted me with myself.

If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase.

We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.

The good or ill of a man lies within his own will.

Why, do you not know, then, that the origin of all human evils, and of baseness, and cowardice, is not death, but rather the fear of death?

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.

It is difficulties that show what men are.

Men are not afraid of things, but of how they view them.

Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not.

What else can I do, a lame old man, but sing hymns to God? If I were a nightingale, I would do the nightingale's part; if I were a swan, I would do as a swan. But now I am a rational creature, and I ought to praise God. This is my work. I do it, nor will I desert my post, so long as I am allowed to keep it. And I ask you to join me in this same song.

By accepting life's limits and inevitabilities and working with them rather than fighting them, we become free.

We all carry the seeds of greatness within us, but we need an image as a point of focus in order that they may sprout.

To the rational being only the irrational is unendurable, but the rational is endurable.

Don't regard what anyone says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours.

Neither the victories of the Olympic Games nor those achieved in battles make the man happy. The only victories that make him happy are those achieved against himself. Temptations and tests are combats. You have beaten one, two, many times; still fight. If you defeat at last you will be happy your entire life, as if you have always defeated.