Quotes from Epictetus

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

"Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of men's desires, but by the removal of desire."

"Very little is needed for everything to be upset and ruined, only a slight lapse in reason."

"What are we to do, then? To make the best of what lies within our power, and deal with everything else as it comes. ‘How does it come, then?’ As God wills."

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

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

"This is your business—to act well the given part, but to choose it belongs to another."

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

"For it is not death or pain that is to be feared, but the fear of pain or death."

"Do not get too attached to life for it is like a sailor's leave on the shore and at any time, the captain may sound the horn, calling you back to eternal darkness."

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

"Remember from now on whenever something tends to make you unhappy, draw on this principle: 'This is no misfortune; but bearing with it bravely is a blessing."

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

"Nothing great comes into being all at once, for that is not the case even with a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me now, ‘I want a fig,’ I’ll reply, ‘That takes time."

"Asked how a man should best grieve his enemy, Epictetus replied, "By setting himself to live the noblest life himself.""

"An uninstructed person will lay the fault of his own bad condition upon others. Someone just starting instruction will lay the fault on himself. Some who is perfectly instructed will place blame neither on others nor on himself."

"We are at the mercy of whoever wields authority over the things we either desire or detest. If you would be free, then, do not wish to have, or avoid, things that other people control, because then you must serve as their slave."

"Keep the prospect of death, exile and all such apparent tragedies before you every day – especially death – and you will never have an abject thought, or desire anything to excess."

"In banquets remember that you entertain two guests, body and soul: and whatever you shall have given to the body you soon eject: but what you shall have given to the soul, you keep always."

"Don't put your purpose in one place and expect to see progress made somewhere else."

"Take care not to hurt the ruling faculty of your mind. If you were to guard against this in every action, you should enter upon those actions more safely."

"Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things."

"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."

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

"No one is ever unhappy because of someone else."

"Here are thieves and robbers and tribunals: and they that are called tyrants, who deem that they have after a fashion power over us, because of the miserable body and what appertains to it. Let us show them that they have power over none."

"What saith Antisthenes? Hast thou never heard?— It is a kingly thing, O Cyrus, to do well and to be evil spoken of."

"When a man is proud because he can understand and explain the writings of Chrysippus, say to yourself, if Chrysippus had not written obscurely, this man would have had nothing to be proud of."

"Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them."

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

"Who, then, is the invincible human being? One who can be disconcerted by nothing that lies outside the sphere of choice."

"Do not try to seem wise to others. If you want to live a wise life, live it on your own terms and in your own eyes."

"It is a universal law — have no illusion — that every creature alive is attached to nothing so much as to its own self-interest."

"Be free from grief not through insensibility like the irrational animals, nor through want of thought like the foolish, but like a man of virtue by having reason as the consolation of grief."