Top 472 Quotes & Sayings by Epictetus - Page 3

Have the wisdom to know what cannot be changed, and the strength to change what can.

What is learned without pleasure is forgotten without remorse.

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

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

No matter where you find yourself, comport yourself as if you were a distinguished person.

Make it your business to draw out the best in others by being an exemplar yourself.

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

You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not.

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

It is not a demonstration of kindness or friendship to the people we care about to join them in indulging in wrongheaded, negative feelings. We do a better service to ourselves and others by remaining detached and avoiding melodramatic reactions.

And be silent for the most part, or else make only the most necessary remarks, and express these in few words. But rarely, and when occasion requires you to talk, talk, indeed, but about no ordinary topics. Do not talk about gladiators, or horseraces, or athletes, or things to eat or drink - topics that arise on all occasions; but above all, do not talk about people, either blaming, or praising, or comparing them.

Lampis the ship owner, on being asked how he acquired his great wealth, replied, My great wealth was acquired with no difficulty, but my small wealth, my first gains, with much labor.

Authentic happiness is always independent of external conditions. Vigilantly practice polite indifference to that which we can't control. Your happiness can only be found within.

Don't be concerned who is watching you. The triumphs and merits of others belong to them - as do yours to you. Make the most of what you've got.

It was the first and most striking characteristic of Socrates never to become heated in discourse, never to utter an injurious or insulting word -- on the contrary, he persistently bore insult from others and thus put an end to the fray.

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

He who is not happy with little will never be happy with much.

It is not he who gives abuse that affronts, but the view that we take of it as insulting; so that when one provokes you it is your own opinion which is provoking.

What ought one to say then as each hardship comes? I was practicing for this, I was training for this.

Act your part with honor.

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.

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.

Once you know who you are and to whom you are linked, you will know what to do

Never say about anything, "I have lost it," but only "I have given it back." Is your child dead? It has been given back. Is your wife dead? She has been returned.

Happiness and personal fulfillment are the natural consequences of doing the right thing.

Ruin and recovering are both from within.

To make anything a habit, do it; to not make it a habit, do not do it; to unmake a habit, do something else in place of it.

Men are not troubled by things themselves, but by their thoughts about them

It’s time to stop being vague. If you wish to be an extraordinary person, if you wish to be wise, then you should explicitly identify the kind of person you aspire to become.

It is difficulties that show what men are. For the future, in case of any difficulty, remember that God, like a gymnastic trainer, has pitted you against a rough antagonist. For what end? That you may be an Olympic conqueror; and this cannot be without toil.

Events do not just happen, but arrive by appointment.

What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are.

Freedom isn't the right or ability to do whatever you please. Freedom comes from understanding the limits of our own power and the inherent limits set in place by nature. By accepting life's limits and inevitabilities and working with them rather than fighting them, you become truly free.

There is but one way to tranquility of mind and happiness, and that is to account no external things thine own, but to commit all to God.

I am always content with what happens; for I know that what God chooses is better than what I choose.

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.

Be not diverted from your duty by any idle reflections the silly world may make upon you, for their censures are not in your power and should not be at all your concerns.

To live a life of virtue, match up your thoughts, words, and deeds.

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.

To know that you do not know and to be willing to admit that you do not know without sheepishly apologizing is real strength and sets the stage for learning and progress in any endeavor.

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.

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.

Don’t consent to be hurt and you won’t be hurt – this is a choice over which you have control

Although we can't control which roles are assigned to us, it must be our business to act our given role as best we possibly can and to refrain from complaining about it. Where ever you find yourself and in whatever circumstances, give an impeccable performance.

A ship should not be held by a single anchor; neither should life depend upon a single hope.

Unremarkable lives are marked by the fear of not looking capable when trying something new.

To pay homage to beauty is to admire Nature; to admire Nature is to worship God

On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.

Desire and happiness cannot live together.

Do nothing in a depressed mood, nor as one afflicted, nor as thinking that you are in misery, for no one compels you to that.

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

It doesn't take much to lose everything, just a little departure from reason

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

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.

Ask yourself, "How are my thoughts, words and deeds affecting my friends, my spouse, my neighbour, my child, my employer, my subordinates, my fellow citizens?"

-….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.

A half-hearted spirit has no power. Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Average people enter into their endeavors headlong and without care.

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

Fight against yourself, recover yourself to decency, to modesty, to freedom. And, in the first place, condemn your actions; but when you have condemned them, do not despair of yourself. For both ruin and recovery are from within.