Epictetus Quotes

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

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

Nothing great 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

No great thing is created suddenly.

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

Freedom is the right to live as we wish.

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.

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

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

Only the educated are free.

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

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

All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.

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

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

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

Do not laugh much or often or unrestrainedly.

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.

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

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?

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.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

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

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

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

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

Unless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed.

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

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

Silence is safer than speech.

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

Silence is safer than speech.

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

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

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.

Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.

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

To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.

No man is free who is not master of himself.