Epictetus

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

What is a good person? The one who achieves tranquility by having formed the habit of
asking on every occasion, “What is the right thing to do now?”
– Epictetus

The difference between the instructed and the ignorant is that the wise now that the virtous
are invincible. They aren’t tricked and provoked by the way things appear to be.
– Epictetus

Practice self-sufficiency. Don’t remain a dependent, malleable patient: Become your own
soul’s doctor.
– Epictetus

Happiness is commonly mistaken for passively experienced pleasure or leisure… True
happiness is a verb. It’s the ongoing dynamic performance of worthy deeds.
– Epictetus

Every habit and faculty is preserved and increased by its corresponding actions: The habit of
walking makes us better walkers, regular running makes us better runners. It is the same
regarding matters of the soul. Whenever you are angry, you increase your anger; you have
increased a habit and added fuel to a fire.
– Epictetus

Things and people are not what we wish them to be nor what they seem to be. They are
what they are.
– Epictetus

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

A half-hearted spirit has no power. Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes.
– Epictetus

Those who pursue the higher life of wisdom, who seek to live by spiritual principles, must be
prepared to be laughed at and condemned… Never live your life in reaction to these
diminished souls.
– Epictetus

Self-mastery depends on self-honesty.
– Epictetus

Try to be as kind to yourself as possible. Do not measure yourself against others or even
against your ideal self. Human betterment is a gradual, two-steps-forward, one-step-back
effort.
– Epictetus

Books are the training weights of the mind.
– Epictetus

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

One of the best ways to elevate your character immediately is to find worthy role models to
emulate… 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.
– Epictetus

The virtue that leads to enduring happiness is not a quid pro quo goodness. (I’ll be good “in
order to” get something.) Goodness in and of itself is the practice and the reward.
– Epictetus

How long can you afford to put off who you really want to be? Your nobler self cannot wait
any longer.
– Epictetus

Seeking to please is a perilous trap.
– Epictetus

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.”
– Epictetus

When we remember that our aim is spiritual progress, we return to striving to be our best
selves. This is how happiness is won.
– Epictetus

Content yourself with being a lover of wisdom, a seeker of the truth. Return and return again
to what is essential and worthy.
– Epictetus

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

Fortify thyself with contentment: that is an impregnable stronghold.
– Epictetus

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

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

Clearly define the person you want to be.
– Epictetus

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

I laugh at those who think they can damage me. They do not know who I am, they do not
know what I think, they cannot even touch the things which are really mine and with which I
live.
– Epictetus

It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.
– Epictetus

As time goes by and you build on the habit of matching the appropriate inner resource to
each incident, you will not tend to get carried away by life’s appearances.
– Epictetus

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

Unless we fully give ourselves over to our endeavors, we are hollow, superficial people and
we never develop our natural gifts.
– Epictetus

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

Except for extreme physical abuse, other people cannot hurt you unless you allow them to.
– Epictetus

Refrain from trying to win other people’s approval and admiration. You are taking a higher
road.
– Epictetus

Desire and aversion, though powerful, are but habits. And we can train ourselves to have
better habits. Restrain the habit of being repelled by all those things that aren’t within your
control, and focus instead on combating things within your power that are not good for you.
– Epictetus

It is incumbent that your thoughts, words, and deeds match up. This is a higher standard
than held by the mob.
– Epictetus

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

It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled
spirit, amid abundance.
– Epictetus

Do not try to seem wise to others.
– Epictetus

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

Virtue is not a matter of degree, but an absolute.
– Epictetus

Most people don’t realize that both help and harm come from within ourselves. Instead they
look to externals, mesmerized by appearances.
– Epictetus

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

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

Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.
– Epictetus

Difficulty shows what men are. Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that
God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man. Why? So that you
may become an Olympic conqueror; but it is not accomplished without sweat.
– Epictetus

The virtous life depends on reason first and foremost. If you safeguard your reason, it will
safeguard you.
– Epictetus

Make it your regular habit to consider your roles – parent, child, neighbor, citizen, leader –
and the natural duties that arise from them. Once you know who you are and to whom you
are linked, you will know what to do.
– Epictetus

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

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.
– Epictetus

Remember: You will never earn the same rewards as others without employing the same
methods and investment of time as they do. It is unreasonable to think we can earn rewards
without being willing to pay their true price.
– Epictetus

Grow up! Who cares what other people think about you?
– Epictetus

Do you wish to be invincible? Then don’t enter into combat with what you have no real
control over.
– Epictetus

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

You are a little soul, carrying a corpse.
– Epictetus

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

Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as
much as we speak.
– Epictetus

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

Most people tend to delude themselves into thinking that freedom comes from doing what
feels good or what fosters comfort and ease. The truth is that people who subordinate
reason to their feelings of the moment are actually slaves of their desires and aversions.
– Epictetus

View yourself as a citizen of a worldwide community and act accordingly.
– Epictetus

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

Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.
– Epictetus

Never depend on the admiration of others. There is no strength in it. Personal merit cannot
be derived from an external source.
– Epictetus

The surest sign of the higher life is serenity. Moral progress results in freedom from inner
turmoil. You can stop fretting about this and that.
– Epictetus

Philosophy’s main task is to respond to the soul’s cry; to make sense of and thereby free
ourselves from the hold of our griefs and fears.
– Epictetus

Small-minded people habitually reproach others for their own misfortunes. Average people
reproach themselves. Those who are dedicated to a life of wisdom understand that the
impulse to blame something or someone is foolishness, that there is nothing to be gained in
blaming, whether it be others or oneself.
– Epictetus

Prattle is seductive. Stay out of its clutches.
– Epictetus

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

Wisdom is revealed through action, not talk.
– Epictetus

From this instant on, vow to stop disappointing yourself. Separate yourself from the mob.
Decide to be extraordinary and do what you need to do – now.
– Epictetus

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

Conventional thinking – its means and ends – is essentially uncreative and uninteresting. Its
job is to preserve the status quo for overly self-defended individuals and institutions.
– Epictetus

Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to.
– Epictetus

This is our predicament: Over and over again, we lose sight of what is important and what
isn’t. We crave things over which we have no control, and are not satisfied by the things
within our control.
– Epictetus

Thou shalt not blame or flatter any.
– Epictetus

Practice having a grateful attitude and you will be happy.
– Epictetus

Stop aspiring to be anyone other than your own best self: for that does fall within your
control.
– Epictetus

Take care not to casually discuss matters that are of great importance to you with people
who are not important to you. Your affairs will become drained of preciousness.
– Epictetus

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.
– Epictetus

It’s better to be a good person and fulfill your obligations than to have renown and power.
– Epictetus

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

Other people’s views and troubles can be contagious… If you encounter a downhearted
friend, a grieving parent, or a colleague who has suffered a sudden reversal of fortune, be
careful not to be overcome yourself by the apparent misfortune.
– Epictetus

Character matters more than reputation.
– Epictetus

It is your own convictions which compels you; that is, choice compels choice.
– Epictetus

In any events, however seemingly dire, there is nothing to prevent us from searching for its
hidden opportunity. It is a failure of the imagination not to do so. But to seek out the
opportunity in situations requires a great deal of courage, for most people around you will
persist in interpreting events in the grossest terms: success or failure, good or bad, right or
wrong.
– Epictetus

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

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

The first step to living wisely is to relinquish self-conceit.
– Epictetus

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

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?
– Epictetus

If any man be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone. For
God hath made all men to enjoy felicity and constancy of good.
– Epictetus

Make the necessary sacrifices that are the price for the worthiest goals: freedom,
evenmindedness, and tranquility.
– Epictetus

When a man prides himself on being able to understand and interpret a difficult book, say to
yourself: If the book had been well written this man would have nothing on which to pride
himself.
– Epictetus

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

What is the first business of one who studies philosophy? To part with self-conceit. For it is
impossible for any one to begin to learn what he thinks that he already knows.
– Epictetus

All human beings seek the happy life, but many confuse the means – for example, wealth and
status – with that life itself.
– Epictetus

Open your eyes: See things for what they really are, thereby sparing yourself the pain of
false attachments and avoidable devastation.
– Epictetus

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

If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may
tend to its increase.
– Epictetus

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

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

A wise man is he who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those
which he has.
– Epictetus

Only the educated are free.
– Epictetus

Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to a humble and
grateful mind.
– Epictetus

Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet. As something is
being passed around it comes to you; stretch out your hand, take a portion of it politely. It
passes on; do not detain it. Or it has not come to you yet; do not project your desire to
meet it, but wait until it comes in front of you. So act toward children, so toward a wife, so
toward office, so toward wealth.
– Epictetus

Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.
– Epictetus

Shall I show you the sinews of a philosopher? “What sinews are those?” – A will
undisappointed; evils avoided; powers daily exercised; careful resolutions; unerring
decisions.
– Epictetus

Were I a nightingale, I would sing like a nightingale; were I a swan, like a swan. But as it is, I
am a rational being, therefore I must sing hymns of praise to God.
– Epictetus

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.”
– Epictetus

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

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

Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or
they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not,
and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man’s task.
– Epictetus

Just because some people are nice to you doesn’t mean you should spend time with them.
Just because they seek you out and are interested in you or your affairs doesn’t mean you
should associate with them… The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you,
whose presence calls forth your best.
– Epictetus

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

No great 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

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

Be on your guard against a false sense of self-importance.
– Epictetus