255 Inspiring Quotes by Epictetus

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

A city is not adorned by external things, but by the virtue of those who dwell in it.

Never in any case say I have lost such a thing, but I have returned it. Is your child dead? It is a return. Is your wife dead? It is a return. Are you deprived of your estate? Is not this also a return?

We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope.

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

Do not laugh much or often or unrestrainedly.

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

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.'.

If you wish to improve, be content to appear clueless or stupid in extraneous matters -- don't wish to seem knowledgeable. And if some regard you as important, distrust yourself.

We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.

If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother.

Just stick to your principles. And rest assured that, if you remain true to them, the same people who made fun of you will come to admire you.

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?

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

Each man's life is a kind of campaign, and a long and complicated one at that. You have to maintain the character of a soldier, and do each separate act at the bidding of the General.

Pleasure, like a kind of bait, is thrown before everything which is really bad, and easily allures greedy souls to the hook of perdition.

When our friends are present we ought to treat them well; and when they are absent, to speak of them well.

You become what you give your attention to…If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will.

It is not so much what happens to you as how you think about what happens.

Keep in mind that you are an actor in a play that is just the way the producer wants it to be…Your job is to put on a splendid performance of the role you have been given.

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.

Dare to look up to God and say, Deal with me in the future as Thou wilt; I am of the same mind as Thou art; I am Thine; I refuse nothing that pleases Thee; lead me where Thou wilt; clothe me in any dress Thou choosest.

Authentic happiness is always independent of external conditions.

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

When one maintains her proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals.

Not things, but opinions about things, trouble men.

Law intends indeed to do service to human life, but it is not able when men do not choose to accept her services; for it is only in those who are obedient to her that she displays her special virtue.

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.

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

Act well your given part; the choice rests not with you.

To the rational being only the irrational is unendurable, but the rational is endurable.

When you are alone, you should call this tranquility and freedom and when you are with many you shouldn't call this a crowd, or trouble or uneasiness but festival and company and contentedly accept it.

For I am not everlasting, but a human being, a part of the whole as an hour is a part of the day. Like an hour I must come, and like an hour pass away.

Confidence in nonsense is a requirement for the creative process.

Confident because of our caution.

The cause of all human evils is the not being able to apply general principles to special cases.

The philosopher's lecture room is a 'hospital': you ought not to walk out of it in a state of pleasure, but in pain; for you are not in good condition when you arrive.

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.

God has pitted you against a rough antagonist that you may be a conqueror, and this cannot be without toil.

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

Be not swept off your feet by the vividness of the impression, but say, "Impression, wait for me a little. Let me see what you are and what you represent. Let me try you.

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.

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

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

It is more necessary for the soul to be cured than the body; for it is better to die than to live badly.

To adorn our characters by the charm of an amiable nature shows at once a lover of beauty and a lover of man.

Cowardice, the dread of what will happen.

How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself.

Reading should serve the goal of attaining peace; if it doesn't make you peaceful, what good is it?

Just keep in mind: the more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.

Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcome.

For in this Case, we are not to give Credit to the Many, who say, that none ought to be educated but the Free; but rather to the Philosophers, who say, that the Well-educated alone are free.

We must undergo a hard winter training and not rush into things for which we haven't prepared.

Another person will not hurt you without your cooperation. You are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be.

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

What is learned without pleasure is forgotten without remorse.

It is not events that disturb the minds of men, but the view they take of them.

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.

People are disturbed not by things, but by the view they take of them.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

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.

Forgiveness is better than revenge, for forgiveness is the sign of a gentle nature, but revenge is the sign of a savage nature. the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

Death, for instance, is nothing terrible, but the terrible thing is the opinion that death is terrible.

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.

Do not be concerned too much with what will happen. Everything which happens will be good and useful for you.

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

In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.

If I can acquire money and also keep myself modest and faithful and magnanimous, point out the way, and I will acquire it.

As a man, casting off worn out garments taketh new ones, so the dweller in the body, entereth into ones that are new.

Freedom and happiness are won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.

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

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

Don't hope that events will turn out the way you want, welcome events in whichever way they happen: this is the path to peace.

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

I have a lantern. You steal my lantern. What, then, is your honor worth no more to you than the price of my lantern!

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

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

You can be invincible, if you enter into no contest in which it is not in your power to conquer.

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

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

I am not eternity, but a man; a part of the whole, as an hour is of the day.

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

Wish that everything should come about just as it does.

Consider first the nature of the business in hand; then examine thy own nature, whether thou hast strength to undertake it.

The struggle is great, the task divine -- to gain mastery, freedom, happiness, and tranquility.

It is not the events but our viewpoint toward events that is the determining factor. We ought to be more concerned about removing wrong thoughts from the mind than removing tumors and abscesses from the body.

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

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

Silence is safer than speech.

If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it.

You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.

The people have a right to the truth as they have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.

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

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.

Practice yourself in little things, and thence proceed to greater.

If you think you control things that are in the control of others, you will lament. You will be disturbed and you will blame both gods and men.

Against specious appearances we must set clear convictions, bright and ready for use. When death appears as an evil, we ought immediately to remember that evils are things to be avoided, but death is inevitable.

You may fetter my leg, but Zeus himself cannot get the better of my free will.

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

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.

Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.

Consider the bigger picture.....think things through and fully commit!

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.

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

Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words.

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

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

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

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.

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

The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will.

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

Difficulty shows what men are.

No man is free who is not a master of himself.

Other people's views and troubles can be contagious. Don't sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others.

With ills unending strives the putter off.

If you have assumed a character above your strength, you have both acted in this matter in an unbecoming way, and you have neglected that which you might have fulfilled.

If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.

Anything worth putting off is worth abandoning altogether.

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

Nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back. For your own will is always within your control.

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

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!'.

Only the educated are 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.

To admonish is better than to reproach for admonition is mild and friendly, but reproach is harsh and insulting; and admonition corrects those who are doing wrong, but reproach only convicts them.

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

I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?

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.

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

No person is free who is not master of himself.

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

What is death? A scary mask. Take it off-see, it doesn't bite.

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

It is unreasonable to think we can earn rewards without being willing to pay their true price. It is always our choice whether or not we wish to pay the price for life's rewards.

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

Men are not afraid of things, but of how they view them.

It were no slight attainment could we merely fulfil what the nature of man implies.

If you wish to be good, first believe that you are bad.

If someone in the street were entrusted with your body, you would be furious. Yet you entrust your mind to anyone around who happens to insult you, and allow it to be troubled and confused. Aren't you ashamed of that?

Focus not on what he or she does, but on keeping to your higher purpose. Your own purpose should seek harmony with nature itself. For this is the true road to freedom.

The soul that companies with virtue is like an ever-flowing source. It is a pure, clear, and wholesome draught, sweet, rich and generous of its store, that injures not, neither destroys.

It has been ordained that there be summer and winter, abundance and dearth, virtue and vice, and all such opposites for the harmony of the whole, and (Zeus) has given each of us a body, property, and companions.

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

Who then is invincible? The one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice.

We must ever bear in mind -- that apart from the will there is nothing good or bad, and that we must not try to anticipate or to direct events, but merely to accept them with intelligence.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

Who is not attracted by bright and pleasant children, to prattle, to creep, and to play with them?

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

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.

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.

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

Try to enjoy the great festival of life with other men!

Events do not just happen, but arrive by appointment.

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

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

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

Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power.

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.

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

If we are not stupid or insincere when we say that the good or ill of man lies within his own will, and that all beside is nothing to us, why are we still troubled?

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

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.

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.

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

Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.

In the long run, every man will pay the penalty for this own misdeeds.

If anyone is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault. Nothing else is the cause of anxiety or loss of tranquility except our own opinion.

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

At this time is freedom anything but the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.

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

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

No one who is in a state of fear or sorrow or tension is free, but whosoever is delivered from sorrows or fears or anxieties is at the same time delivered from servitude.

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

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

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.

God has entrusted me with myself.

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

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

We are not disturbed by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens to us.

Do not seek to have everything that happens happen as you wish, but wish for everything to happen as it actually does happen, and your life will be serene.

Exceed due measure, and the most delightful things become the least delightful.

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

Some things are in our control and others not.

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

In theory it is easy to convince an ignorant person; in actual life, men not only object to offer themselves to be convinced, but hate the man who has convinced them.

No great thing is created suddenly.

It's so simple really: If you say you're going to do something, do it. If you start something, finish it.

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.

Who is your master? Anyone who has control over things upon which you've set your heart, or over things which you seek to avoid.

We are not to give credit to the many, who say that none ought to be educated but the free; but rather to the philosophers, who say that the well-educated alone are free.

Find significance within yourself. Within your own sphere of power -- that is where you have the greatest consequence.