Epictetus Quotes
Top 100 wise famous quotes and sayings by Epictetus
Epictetus Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from Epictetus on Wise Famous Quotes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
In prosperity it is very easy to find a friend; but in adversity it is the most difficult of all things.
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.
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.
You may be always victorious if you will never enter into any contest where the issue does not wholly depend upon yourself.
Freedom and slavery, the one is the name of virtue, and the other of vice, and both are acts of the will.
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.
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.
We can't control the impressions others form about us, and the effort to do so only debases our character.
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.
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 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.
As you think, so you become ... Our busy minds are forever jumping to conclusions, manufacturing and interpreting signs that aren't there.
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.