Epictetus was a greek stoic philosopher. He was born in Hierapolis Pamukkale Denizli, Turkey into slavery at Hierapolis, Phrygia lived in Rome until his banishment, when he went to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece for the rest of his life. His teaching were written down and published by his pupil Arrian in his discourses and Enchiridion. He was died in 135 AD in Nicopolis, Greece.
Top 100 Quotes Of Epictetus.
Epictetus
With every accident, ask yourself what abilities you have for making a proper use of it.
Epictetus
No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.
Epictetus
You are but an appearance, and not absolutely the thing you appear to be.
Epictetus
It is better to do wrong seldom and to own it, and to act right for the most part than seldom to admit that you have done wrong and to do wrong often.
Epictetus
Some things are in our control and others not.
Epictetus
Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet.
Epictetus
Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly your own concern, and be clear that what belongs to others is their business and none of yours.
Epictetus
Most of what passes for legitimate entertainment is inferior or foolish and only caters to or exploits people’s weaknesses.
Epictetus
For states are well governed by the wisdom of men, but not by stone and wood.
Epictetus
Death is nothing terrible, else it would have appeared so to Socrates. But the terror consists in our notion of death, that it is terrible.
Epictetus
If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
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
Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to the will.
Epictetus
Freedom and slavery, the one is the name of virtue, and the other of vice, and both are acts of the will.
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
No man is free who is not master of himself.
Epictetus
The anger of an ape – the threat of a flattered – these deserve equal regard.
Epictetus
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Epictetus
When, therefore, any one provokes you, be assured that it is your own opinion which provokes you.
Epictetus
Decide to be extraordinary and do what you need to do – now.
Epictetus
If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
Epictetus
Friend, bethink you first what it is that you would do, and then what your own nature is able to bear.
Epictetus
The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.
Epictetus
From this instant on, vow to stop disappointing yourself. Separate yourself from the mob.
Epictetus
To the rational being only the irrational is unendurable, but the rational is endurable.
Epictetus
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
Epictetus
He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.
Epictetus
Fortify yourself with contentment for this is an impregnable fortress.
Epictetus
In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake it.
Epictetus
To you, all you have seems small: to me, all I have seems great. Your desire is insatiable, mine is satisfied.
Epictetus
True instruction is this: —to learn to wish that each thing should come to pass as it does.
Epictetus
Since it is reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.
Epictetus
If you seek Truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found Truth, you need not fear being defeated.
Epictetus
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
Epictetus
Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power.
Epictetus
Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.
Epictetus
When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.
Epictetus
We should not have either a blunt knife or a freedom of speech which is ill-managed.
Epictetus
However he may treat me, I must deal rightly by him. This is what lies with me, what none can hinder.
Epictetus
Of pleasures, those which occur most rarely give the most delight.
Epictetus
Demand not that things happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do, and you will go on well.
Epictetus
Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about theorems, but act conformably to them.
Epictetus
No matter what happens, it is within my power to turn it to my advantage.
Epictetus
You can be invincible, if you enter into no contest in which it is not in your power to conquer.
Epictetus
Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.
Epictetus
Events happen as they do. People behave as they are. Embrace what you actually get.
Epictetus
But if you chance to be placed in some superior station, will you presently set yourself up for a tyrant?
Epictetus
Is freedom anything else than the power of living as we choose?
Epictetus
No thing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.
Epictetus
If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write.
Epictetus
Those proficient praise no one, blame no one, and accuse no one.
Epictetus
Nothing is in reality either pleasant or unpleasant by nature but all things become so through habit.
Epictetus
Be free from grief not through insensibility like the irrational animals, nor through want of thought like the foolish, but like a man of virtue by having reason as the consolation of grief.
Epictetus
The origin of sorrow is this: to wish for something that does not come to pass.
Epictetus
Disease is an impediment to the body, but not to the will, unless the will itself chooses.
Epictetus
The appearance of things to the mind is the standard of every action to man.
Epictetus
If it is good to use attention tomorrow, how much better is it to do so today?
Epictetus
There are some things which men confess with ease, and others with difficulty.
Epictetus
Any person capable of angering you becomes your master.
Epictetus
Let whatever appears to be the best be to you an inviolable law.
Epictetus
Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.
Epictetus
To be getting an education means this: to be learning what is your own, and what is not your own.
Epictetus
If you are in pain, you will find fortitude. If you hear unpleasant language, you will find patience.
Epictetus
Give me, by all means, the shorter and nobler life, instead of one that is longer but of less account!
Epictetus
Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.
Epictetus
Every art and every faculty contemplates certain things as its principal objects.
Epictetus
Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.
Epictetus
Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions.
Epictetus
First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
Epictetus
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?
Epictetus
Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.
Epictetus
Take care not to hurt the ruling faculty of your mind. If you were to guard against this in every action, you should enter upon those actions more safely.
Epictetus
If you are in pain, you will find fortitude. If you hear unpleasant language, you will find patience.
Epictetus
Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an humble and grateful mind.
Epictetus
God save me from fools with a little philosophy—no one is more difficult to reach.
Epictetus
The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.
Epictetus
It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
Epictetus
Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions.
Epictetus
Man, what are you talking about? Me in chains? You may fetter my leg but my will, not even Zeus himself can overpower.
Epictetus
If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
Epictetus
Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of men’s desires, but by the removal of desire.
Epictetus
In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside.
Epictetus
Have this thought ever present with thee, when thou losest any outward thing, what thou gainest in its stead; and if this be the more precious, say not, I have suffered loss.
Epictetus
People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.
Epictetus
The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.
Epictetus
The poor body must be separated from the spirit either now or later, as it was separated from it before.
Epictetus
Everything has two handles, the one by which it may be carried, the other by which it cannot.
Epictetus
Seek not the good in external things; seek it in yourselves.
Epictetus
It is difficulties that show what men are.
Epictetus
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.
Epictetus
He who exercises wisdom, exercises the knowledge which is about God.
Epictetus
Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.
Epictetus
A city is not adorned by external things, but by the virtue of those who dwell in it.
Epictetus
A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope.
Epictetus
And be silent for the most part, or else make only the most necessary remarks, and express these in few words.
Epictetus
You are a little soul, carrying a corpse.
Epictetus
It is my business, to manage carefully and dexterously whatever happens.
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
If you ever happen to turn your attention to externals, for the pleasure of anyone, be assured that you have ruined your scheme of life.
Epictetus
Let no man think that he is loved by any who loveth none.
