Epictetus Quotes (129 Quotes)


    He who exercises wisdom exercises the knowledge which is about God.

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

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

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

    Covetousness like jealousy, when it has taken root, never leaves a person, but with their life. Cowardice is the dread of what will happen.


    We must not believe the many, who say that only free people ought to be educated, but we should rather believe the philosophers who say that only the educated are free.

    Men are disturbed, not by things that happen, but by their opinion of things that happen.

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

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

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

    Fortify yourself with moderation for this is an impregnable fortress.

    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.

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

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

    Do not laugh much or often or unrestrainedly.

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

    If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please.

    God has entrusted me with myself.

    No great thing is created suddenly.

    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.

    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.

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

    In order to please others, we loose our hold on our lifes purpose.

    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 mans task.

    First say to yourself what you would be, 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.

    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.

    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.

    If you wish to live a life free from sorrow, think of what is going to happen as if it had already happened.

    There are some faults which men readily admit, but others not so readily.

    If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit give it nothing which may tend to its increase. At first, keep quiet and count the days when you were not angry 'I used to be angry every day, then every other day next, every two, then every three days' and if you succeed in passing thirty days, sacrifice to the gods in thanksgiving.

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

    No man is free who is not master of himself.

    Everything has two handles one by which it may be borne, another by which it cannot.

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

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

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

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

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

    Remember that you are an actor in a play, and that the Playwright chooses the manner of it If he wants you to act a poor man you must act the part with all your powers and so if your part be a cripple or a magistrate or a plain man. For your business is to act the character that is given you and act it well. The choice of the cast is Anothers.

    Difficulties show men what they are. In case of any difficulty remember that God has pitted you against a rough antagonist that you may be a conqueror, and this cannot be without toil.

    Common and vulgar people ascribe all ills that they feel to others people of little wisdom ascribe to themselves people of much wisdom, to no one.

    Ruin and recovery are alike from within.

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

    The materials are indifferent, but the use we make of them is not a matter of indifference.

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

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

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

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

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


    More Epictetus Quotations (Based on Topics)


    Man - God - Wisdom & Knowledge - Hope - Money & Wealth - Philosophy - Mind - Anger - Nature - Life - Obstacles - Happiness - Body - Speaking - Education - World - Reality - Pleasure - Games - View All Epictetus Quotations

    Related Authors


    John Stuart Mill - Confucius - Aristotle - Mohammad Khatami - Martin Heidegger - Marquis de Condorcet - Ludwig Wittgenstein - John Dewey - Guru Nanak - Democritus


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