Epictetus quotes: wise famous quotes, sayings and quotations by Epictetus

Epictetus Famous Quotes & Sayings

Discover top inspirational quotes from Epictetus on Wise Famous Quotes.

In every affair consider what precedes and what follows, and then undertake it

Tell yourself what you want to be, then act your part accordingly.

When you let go of your attention for a little while, do not think you may recover it whenever you please.

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.

People are ready to acknowledge some of their faults, but will admit to others only with reluctance.

We are not to lead events, but to follow them.

Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself.

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.

Man is not fully free unless he is master of himself.

It is my business, to manage carefully and dexterously whatever happens

It is impossible that happiness, and yearning for what is not present, should ever be united.

If you have assumed any character beyond your strength, you have both demeaned yourself ill in that and quitted one which you might have supported.

In short, we do not abandon any discipline for despair of ever being the best in it.

The foolish and the uneducated have little use for freedom. Only the educated are free.

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

Understand what words you use first, then use them.

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

He who exercises wisdom, exercises the knowledge which is about God.

But to be hanged - is that not unendurable? Even so, when a man feels that it is reasonable, he goes off and hangs himself.

You'd have a better chance persuading someone to change their sexual orientation than reaching people who have rendered themselves so deaf and blind.

Unless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed.

Death is not dreadful or else it would have appeared dreadful to Socrates.

Grammar will tell you how to write; but whether to write or not, grammar will not tell.

Crows pick out the eyes of the dead, when the dead have no longer need of them; but flatterers mar the soul of the living, and her eyes they blind.

Try not to react merely in the moment. Pull back from the situation. Take a wider view. Compose yourself.

Don't put your purpose in one place and expect to see progress made somewhere else.

We should realize that an opinion is not easily formed unless a person says and hears the same things every day and practises them in real life.

Sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy.

No man can rob us of our Will - no man can lord it over that! LXXXIV

If then you desire (aim at) such great things remember that you must not (attempt to) lay hold of them with a small effort;

Don't demand or expect that events happen as you would wish them do. Accept events as they actually happen. That way, peace is possible.

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

A man that seeks truth and loves it must be reckoned precious to any human society.

Of pleasures, those which occur most rarely give the most delight.

It is difficulties that show what men are.

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

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

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

In prosperity it is very easy to find a friend; but in adversity it is the most difficult of all things.

We should do everything both cautiously and confidently at the same time.

Is you naturally entitled, then, to a good father? No, only to a father. Is

Check your passions that you may not be punished by them.

Liars are the cause of all the sins and crimes in the world.

Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.

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

The appearance of things to the mind is the standard of every action to man.

In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught;but in life there are many things to draw us aside.

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.

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

You may be always victorious if you will never enter into any contest where the issue does not wholly depend upon yourself.

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

We should not have either a blunt knife or a freedom of speech which is ill-managed.

Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee. ~ Epictetus

Very little is needed for everything to be upset and ruined, only a slight lapse in reason.

Freedom and slavery, the one is the name of virtue, and the other of vice, and both are acts of the will.

The best place to get help is from yourself.

Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of men's desires, but by the removal of desire.

What saith Antisthenes? Hast thou never heard? - It is a kingly thing, O Cyrus, to do well and to be evil spoken of.

Seek not for events to happen as you wish but rather wish for events to happen as they do and your life will go smoothly.

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

Choose the life that is noblest, for custom can make it sweet to thee.

To get or not to get what we desire can be equally disappointing.

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.

Stop honouring externals, quit turning yourself into the tool of mere matter, or of people who can supply you or deny you those material things.

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

The beginning of philosophy is the recognition of the conflict between opinions.

Greatness of reason is measured not by height or length, but by the quality of its judgements.

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

We can't control the impressions others form about us, and the effort to do so only debases our character.

Contentment, as it is a short road and pleasant, has great delight and little trouble.

What is learned without pleasure is forgotten without remorse.

Renew every day your conversation with God: Do this even in preference to eating. Think more often of God than you breathe.

Small-minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise see all blame as foolishness

If I was a nightingale I would sing like a nightingale; if a swan, like a swan. But since I am a rational creature my role is to praise God.

It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death.

No great thing is created suddenly.

Getting distracted by trifles is the easiest thing in the world ... Focus on your main duty

A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single
hope

Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.

Appear to know only this
never to fail nor fall.

Do not strive for things occurring to occur as you wish, but wish the things occurring as they occur, and you will flow well.

It is much better to die of hunger unhindered by grief and fear than to live affluently beset with worry, dread, suspicion and unchecked desire.

If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.

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

No matter what happens, it is within my power to turn it to my advantage.

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

Things true and evident must of necessity be recognized by those who would contradict them.

If your heart is quite set upon a crown, make and put on one of roses, for it will make the prettier appearance.

Taking account of the value of externals, you see, comes at some cost to the value of one's own character.

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

Every art and every faculty contemplates certain things as its principal objects.

As you think, so you become ... Our busy minds are forever jumping to conclusions, manufacturing and interpreting signs that aren't there.

There are some faults which men readily admit, but others not so readily.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

Asked how a man should best grieve his enemy, Epictetus replied, By setting himself to live the noblest life himself.

Living a good life leads to enduring happiness. Goodness in and of itself is the practice AND the reward.

Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.

Epictetus being asked how a man should give pain to his enemy answered, By preparing himself to live the best life that he can.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

Let your will to avoid have no concern with what is not in man's power; direct it only to things in man's power that are contrary to nature.