Epictetus Quotes

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

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

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.

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

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

You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.

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

If you wish to be a writer, write.

If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write.

Watch yourself as you go about your daily business and later reflect on what you saw, trying to identify the sources of distress in your life and thinking about how to avoid that distress.

A vulgar man, in any ill that happens to him, blames others; a novice in philosophy blames himself; and a philosopher blames neither, the one nor the other.

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

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

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

He is a drunkard who takes more than three glasses though he be not drunk.

The universe is but one great city, full of beloved ones, divine and human, by nature endeared to each other.

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

Seek not good from without; seek it within yourselves, or you will never find it.

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

If you see anybody wail and complain, call him a slave, though he be clad in purple.

-….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.

No great thing is created suddenly.

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

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

Seek to be the purple thread in the long white gown.

When the Idea, of any Pleasure strikes your Imagination... let that time be employed in making a just Computation between, the duration of the Pleasure, and that of the Repentance sure to follow it.

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

If you seek truth you will not seek victory by dishonorable means, and if you find truth you will become invincible.

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.

Events do not just happen, but arrive by appointment.

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.

Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.

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

The origin of sorrow is this: to wish for something that does not come to pass.

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

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

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

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

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.

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

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.

What is learned without pleasure is forgotten without remorse.

A soul which is conversant with virtue is like an ever flowing source, for it is pure and tranquil and potable and sweet and communicative (social) and rich and harmless and free from mischief.

It is not my place in society that makes me well off, but my judgements, and these I can carry with me... These alone are my own and cannot be taken away.

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.

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

Confidence in nonsense is a requirement for the creative process.

The pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us greatest delight.

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.

It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.