Epictetus famous quotes

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

#Life #Finding Yourself #Matter

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

#Who You Are

When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.
-- Epictetus

#Forgiveness #Spiritual #Anger

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
-- Epictetus

#Inspirational #Change #Inspiring

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

#Love #True Friend #Lying

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
-- Epictetus

#Happiness #Success #Being Happy

Books are the training weights of the mind.
-- Epictetus

#Book #Training #Mind

Not every difficult and dangerous thing is suitable for training, but only that which is conducive to success in achieving the object of our effort.
-- Epictetus

#Friendship #Effort #Training

Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.
-- Epictetus

#Freedom #Philosophical #Wish

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.
-- Epictetus

#Inspirational #Beauty #Fashion

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

#Positive #Happiness #Thank You

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.
-- Epictetus

#Friendship #Best Friend #Uplifting

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
-- Epictetus

#Life #Stupid #Silly

You can be happy if you know this secret: Some things are within your power to control and some things are not.
-- Epictetus

#Joy #Secret

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

#Inspirational #Contentment #Fortresses

Difficulties show men what they are. In case of any difficulty, remember that God has pitted you against a rough antagonist that you may be a conqueror, and this cannot be without toil.
-- Epictetus

#Inspirational #Men #Toil

Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but accustom yourself to something else.
-- Epictetus

#Practice

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.
-- Epictetus

#Death #Children #Wife

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

#Fighting #Limits #Accepting

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

#Best Wishes #Wish #Ecstasy

Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the world.
-- Epictetus

#Inspirational #Happiness #Confidence

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.
-- Epictetus

#Safety #Use #Aviation

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

#Hurt #Choices #Consent

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.
-- Epictetus

#Wise #Wish #Kind

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

#Philosophical #Silence #Quiet

If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.
-- Epictetus

#Believe #Philosophical #Wicked

Seek not the good in external things;seek it in yourselves.
-- Epictetus

He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.
-- Epictetus

#Running #Laughing

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

#Real #Men #Anxiety

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

#Inspirational #Matter #Advantage

Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control. Stop aspiring to be anyone other than your own best self: for that does fall within your control.
-- Epictetus

#Lying #Fall #Self

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
-- Epictetus

#Inspirational #Life #Motivational

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
-- Epictetus

#Positive #Uplifting #Money

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

#Natural #Fulfillment #Doing The Right Thing

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

#Military #Philosophical #Discipline

If you wish to be a writer, write.
-- Epictetus

#Philosophical #Writing #Wish

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

#Order #Purpose #Please

When we blather about trivial things, we ourselves become trivial, for our attention gets taken up with trivialities. You become what you give your attention to.
-- Epictetus

#Taken #Giving #Attention

First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
-- Epictetus

#Communication #Philosophical #Jogging

Progress is not achieved by luck or accident, but by working on yourself daily.
-- Epictetus

#Luck #Progress #Accidents

At every occasion in your life, do not forget to commune with yourself and ask of yourself how you can profit by it.
-- Epictetus

#Forget #Profit #Communes

One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.
-- Epictetus

#Sports #Philosophical #Perfection

The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.
-- Epictetus

#Wisdom #Philosophical #Men

Practice yourself, for heaven's sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.
-- Epictetus

#Philosophical #Practice #Heaven

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

#Spiritual #Men #Heaven

Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.
-- Epictetus

#Inspirational #Life #Positive

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

#Leadership #Draws

Learn to wish that everything should come to pass exactly as it does.
-- Epictetus

#Wish #Doe #Should

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.
-- Epictetus

#Philosophical #Difficulty #Shows

If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: 'He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned.'
-- Epictetus

#Perfect #Trying #Doe

The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
-- Epictetus

#Positive #Encouraging #Uplifting

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
-- Epictetus

#Communication #Two #Listening

It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
-- Epictetus

#Happiness #Moving On #Attitude

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.
-- Epictetus

#Fathers Day #Teaching #Son

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
-- Epictetus

#Motivational #Philosophical #Responsibility

Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.
-- Epictetus

#Evil #Betrayed #Libertarian

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.
-- Epictetus

#Moving #Creative #Feelings

It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous -- even death is terrible only if we fear it.
-- Epictetus

#Inspiring #Attitude #Events

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

#Understanding #Principles #Clear

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

#Depressing #Pain

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

#Men #Opposites #Progress

Don't be concerned with other people's impressions of you. They are dazzled and deluded by appearances. Stick with your purpose. This alone will strengthen your will and give your life coherence.
-- Epictetus

#People #Giving #Purpose

To live a life of virtue, you have to become consistent, even when it isn't convenient, comfortable, or easy.
-- Epictetus

#Spirituality #Virtue #Easy

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.
-- Epictetus

#Silly #Reflection #Achievement

Bear in mind that you should conduct yourself in life as at a feast.
-- Epictetus

#Food #Mind #Bears

Not things, but opinions about things, trouble men.
-- Epictetus

#Men #Opinion #Trouble

The flourishing life cannot be achieved until we moderate our desires and see how superficial and fleeting they are.
-- Epictetus

#Desire #Fleeting #Superficial

Some things are up to us [eph' hêmin] and some things are not up to us. Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions–in short, whatever is our own doing. Our bodies are not up to us, nor are our possessions, our reputations, or our public offices, or, that is, whatever is not our own doing.
-- Epictetus

#Office #Desire #Body

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

#Life #Envy #Attention

Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, the part of a swan.
-- Epictetus

#Swans #Nightingales

Authentic happiness is always independent of external conditions.
-- Epictetus

#Independent #Authentic Happiness

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!’.
-- Epictetus

#Wise #Men #Air

These reasonings are unconnected: "I am richer than you, therefore I am better"; "I am more eloquent than you, therefore I am better." The connection is rather this: "I am richer than you, therefore my property is greater than yours;" "I am more eloquent than you, therefore my style is better than yours." But you, after all, are neither property nor style.
-- Epictetus

#Style #Connections #Eloquent

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

#Motivational #Thinking #People

It takes more than just a good looking body. You've got to have the heart and soul to go with it.
-- Epictetus

#Fitness #Heart #Soul

Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths.
-- Epictetus

#Opportunity #Inward #Trials

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

#Character #Effort #Form

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

#Being Yourself #Issues #Doe

It is difficulties that show what men are.
-- Epictetus

#Courage #Men #Difficulty

Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.
-- Epictetus

#Inspirational #Figs #Grapes

When the idea of any pleasure strikes your imagination, make a just computation between the duration of the pleasure and that of the repentance that is likely to follow it.
-- Epictetus

#Ideas #Imagination #Duration

He who exercises wisdom exercises the knowledge which is about God.
-- Epictetus

#God #Exercise

Give yourself fully to your endeavors. Decide to construct your character through excellent actions and determine to pay the price of a worthy goal. The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths.
-- Epictetus

#Character #Volunteer #Giving

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.
-- Epictetus

#Inspirational #Thinking #People

Only the educated are free.
-- Epictetus

#Life #Education #Teacher

No great thing is created suddenly.
-- Epictetus

#Perseverance #Inspirational Life #Philosophical

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

#Inspirational #Men #Circumstances

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.
-- Epictetus

#Philosophical #Evil #Religion

No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. 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

#Life #Patience #Time

All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.
-- Epictetus

#Philosophy #Lying #Reality

We tell lies, yet it is easy to show that lying is immoral.
-- Epictetus

#Lying #Philosophical #Honor

If someone speaks badly of you, do not defend yourself against the accusations, but reply; "you obviously don't know about my other vices, otherwise you would have mentioned these as well
-- Epictetus

#Vices #Speak #Accusation

You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.
-- Epictetus

#Life #Philosophical #Soul

No man is free who is not master of himself.
-- Epictetus

#Motivational #Self Esteem #Philosophical

If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please.
-- Epictetus

#Philosophical #Libertarian #Moderation

Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.
-- Epictetus

#Life #Hope #Niece

What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows.
-- Epictetus

#Business #Philosophy #Thinking

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

#Motivational #Lying #Men

Common and vulgar people ascribe all ills that they feel to others; people of little wisdom ascribe to themselves; people of much wisdom, to no one.
-- Epictetus

#Adversity #People #Littles

Any person capable of angering you becomes your master.
-- Epictetus

#Emotional #Masters #Persons