Epictetus Quotes

6

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.

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6

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

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5

Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.

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5

Epictetus being asked how a man should give pain to his enemy answered, By preparing himself to live the best life that he can.

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4

Small-minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise see all blame as foolishness.

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3

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

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3

Fortify yourself with contentment for this is an impregnable fortress.

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2

Silence at the proper season is wisdom, and better than any speech.

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2

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

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2

Whoever then would be free, let him wish for nothing, let him decline nothing, which depends on others; else he must necessarily be a slave.

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2

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

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2

Where a man is against his will, there his is imprisoned. Desire things to happen exactly as they happen and you will always be free.

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2

Demand not that things happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do, and you will go on well.

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2

Freedom is the power to live as we choose.

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2

Difficulty shows what men are.

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2

If someone speaks badly of you, do not defend yourself against the accusations, but reply; you obviously don’t know about my other vices otherwise you would have mentioned these as well.

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2

No man is free who is not master of himself.

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1

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

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1

All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.

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1

If you seek Truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found Truth, you need not fear being defeated.

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1

Vultures are the most righteous of birds: they do not attack even the smallest living creature.

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1

You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.

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1

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

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1

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

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1

Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Therefore, give yourself fully to your endeavours. 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. Remain steadfast…and one day you will build something that endures: something worthy of your potential.

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1

You will do the greatest services to the state, if you shall raise not the roofs of the houses, but the souls of the citizens: for it is better that great souls should dwell in small houses than for mean slaves to lurk in great houses.

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1

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

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1

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

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1

Don’t live by your own rules, but in harmony with nature.

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1

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

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1

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

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1

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

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1

For sheep don’t throw up the grass to show the shepherds how much they have eaten; but, inwardly digesting their food, they outwardly produce wool and milk.

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1

Bravery stands halfway between anxiety and recklessness, one of which is a lack, the other an excess of bravery.

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1

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

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1

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

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1

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

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1

It’s better to live under a monarchy than to suffer under democracy.

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1

The poor go to war, to fight and die for the delights, riches, and superfluities of others.

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1

To be ignorant of the lives of the most celebrated men of antiquity is to continue in a state of childhood all our days.

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1

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.

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1

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.

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1

Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one that is longer but of less account!

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