Epictetus Quotes

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

Suppose I should say to a wrestler, 'Show me your muscle'. And he should answer me, 'See my dumb-bells'. Your dumb-bells are your own affair; I want to see the effect of them.
Take the treatise 'On Choice', and see how thoroughly I have perused it.
I am not asking about this, O slave, but how you act in choosing and refusing, how you manage your desires and aversions, your intentions and purposes, how you meet events
whether you are in harmony with nature's laws or opposed to them. If in harmony, give me evidence of that, and I will say you are progressing; if the contrary, you may go your way, and not only comment on your books, but write some like them yourself; and what good will it do you?

Consider the bigger picture ... think things through and fully commit!

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

Asked, Who is the rich man? Epictetus replied, "He who is content.

The best place to get help is from yourself.

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

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

If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it.

- ... .when things seem to have reached that stage, merely say "I won't play any longer", and take your departure; but if you stay, stop lamenting.

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

What is learned without pleasure is forgotten without remorse.

Such was, and is, and will be the nature of the universe, and it isn't possible that things should come into being in any other way than they do at present; and not only have human beings participated in the process of change and transformation along with all the other creatures that live on the earth, but also those beings that are divine, and, by Zeus, even the four elements, which are changed and transformed upwards and downwards, as earth becomes water, and water air, and air is transformed in turn into ether. If someone endeavours to turn his mind towards these things, and to persuade himself to accept of his own free will what must necessarily come about, he will live a very balanced and harmonious life.

There is a time and place for diversion and amusements, but you should never allow them to override your true purposes.

Destroy desire completely for the present. For if you desire anything which is not in our power, you must be unfortunate

Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

[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.

First to those universal principles I have spoken of: these you must keep at command, and without them neither sleep nor rise, drink nor eat nor deal with men: the principle that no one can control another's will, and that the will alone is the sphere of good and evil.

Fortify yourself with contentment for this is an impregnable fortress.

Anything worth putting off is worth abandoning altogether.

An ignorant person is inclined to blame others for his own misfortune. To blame oneself is proof of progress. But the wise man never has to blame another or himself.

You are the one who knows yourself - which is to say, you know how much you are worth in your own estimation, and therefore at what price you will sell yourself; because people sell themselves at different rates.

Let no man think that he is loved by any who loveth none.

Don't be concerned with other people's impressions of you. They are dazzled and deluded by appearances. Stick with your purpose. This alone will strengthen your will and give your life coherence.

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

Never look for your work in one place and your progress in another.

Confident because of our caution

What thou avoidest suffering thyself seek not to impose on others.

You become what you give your attention to.

It is wicked to withdraw from being useful to the needy, and cowardly to give way to the worthless.

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

It isn't events themselves that disturb people, but only their judgments about them.

Don't seek that all that comes about should come about as you wish, but wish that everything that comes about should come about just as it does, and then you'll have a calm and happy life.

Now is the time to get serious about living your ideals. How long can you afford to put off who you really want to be? Your nobler self cannot wait any longer. Put your principles into practice – now. Stop the excuses and the procrastination. This is your life! You aren't a child anymore. The sooner you set yourself to your spiritual program, the happier you will be. The longer you wait, the more you'll be vulnerable to mediocrity and feel filled with shame and regret, because you know you are capable of better. 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.

Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about theorems, but act conformably to them. Thus, at an entertainment, don't talk how persons ought to eat, but
eat as you ought. For remember that in this manner Socrates also universally avoided all ostentation.

Why, do you not know, then, that the origin of all human evils, and of baseness, and cowardice, is not death, but rather the fear of death?

Don't seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.

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

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.

I'll show you that I'm master.'
- How will you do that? Zeus has set me free. Do you really suppose that he would allow his own son to be turned into a slave? You're master of my carcass, take that.

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.

If a man is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault, for God made all men to be happy.

Nothing great is produced suddenly, since not even the grape or the fig is. If you say to me now that you want a fig, I will answer to you that it requires time: let it flower first, then put forth fruit, and then ripen.

Do you know that disease and death must needs overtake us, no matter what we are doing? ... what do you wish to be doing when it overtakes you? ... If you have anything better to be doing when you are so overtaken, get to work on that.

If what philosophers say of the kinship of God and Man be true, what remains for men to do but as Socrates did: - never, when asked one's country, to answer, "I am an Athenian or a Corinthian," but "I am a citizen of the world.

If someone in the street were entrusted with your body, you would be furious. Yet you entrust your mind to anyone around who happens to insult you, and allow it to be troubled and confused. Aren't you ashamed of that?

Every habit and faculty is confirmed and strengthened by the corresponding actions, that of walking by walking, that of running by running. If you wish to be a good reader, read; if you wish to be a good writer, write. If you should give up reading for thirty days one after the other, and be engaged in something else, you will know what happens. So also if you lie in bed for ten days, get up and try to take a rather long walk, and you will see how wobbly your legs are. In general, therefore, if you want to do something, make a habit of it; if you want not to do something, refrain from doing it, and accustom yourself to something else instead.

In literature, too, it is not great achievement to memorize what you have read while not formulating an opinion of your own.

All human beings seek the happy life, but many confuse the means - for example, wealth and status - with that life itself. This misguided focus on the means to a good life makes people get further from the happy life. The really worthwhile things are the virtuous activities that make up the happy life, not the external means that may seem to produce it.

We must consider what is the time for singing, what the time for play, and in whose presence: what will be unsuited to the occasion; whether our companions are to despise us, or we to despise ourselves: when to jest, and whom to mock at: and on what occasion to be conciliatory and to whom: in a word, how one ought to maintain one's character in society. Wherever you swerve from any of these principles, you suffer loss at once; not loss from without, but issuing from the very act itself.

To pay homage to beauty is to admire Nature; to admire Nature is to worship God

O slavish man! will you not bear with your own brother, who has God for his Father, as being a son from the same stock, and of the same high descent? But if you chance to be placed in some superior station, will you presently set yourself up for a tyrant?

Above all, remember that the door stands open. Be not more fearful than children; but as they, when they weary of the game, cry, "I will play no more," even so, when thou art in the like case, cry, "I will play no more" and depart. But if thou stayest, make no lamentation.

You must be one man, either good or bad. You must cultivate either your own ruling faculty or externals, and apply yourself either to things within or without you; that is, be either a philosopher, or one of the vulgar.

No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.

We need to regularly stop and take stock; to sit down and determine within ourselves which things are worth valuing and which things are not; which risks are worth the cost and which are not. Even the most confusing or hurtful aspects of life can be made more tolerable by clear seeing and by choice.

If any 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.

What would Heracles have been if he had said, "How am I to prevent a big lion from appearing, or a big boar, or brutal men?" What care you, I say? If a big boar appears, you will have a greater struggle to engage in; if evil men appear, you will free the world from evil men.

Wisdom means understanding without any doubt that circumstances do not rise to meet our expectations. Events happen as they may. People behave as they will.

In the long run, every man will pay the penalty for this own misdeeds.

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

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

If you must be affected by other people's misfortunes, show them pity instead of contempt. Drop this readiness to hate and take offence.

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

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

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.

For I am not Eternity, but a human being - a part of the whole, as an hour is part of the day. I must come like the hour, and like the hour must pass!

Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, the part of a swan.

Make it your goal never to fail in your desires or experience things you would rather avoid; try never to err in impulse and repulsion; aim to be perfect also in the practice of attention and withholding judgment.

Reading should serve the goal of attaining peace; if it doesn't make you peaceful, what good is it?

Do nothing in a depressed mood, nor as one afflicted, nor as thinking that you are in misery, for no one compels you to that.

Do not give sentence in another tribunal till you have been yourself judged in the tribunal of Justice.

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

I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?

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.

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

It's so simple really: If you say you're going to do something, do it. If you start something, finish it.

I must die. I must be imprisoned. I must suffer exile. But must I die groaning? Must I whine as well? Can anyone hinder me from going into exile with a smile? The master threatens to chain me: what say you? Chain me? My leg you will chain
yes, but not my will
no, not even Zeus can conquer that.

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

Philosophy does not claim to secure for us anything outside our control. Otherwise it would be taking on matters that do not concern it. For as wood is the material of the carpenter, and marble that of the sculptor, so the subject matter of the art of life is the life of the self.

When we name things correctly, we comprehend them correctly, without adding information or judgements that aren't there. Does someone bathe quickly? Don't say be bathes poorly, but quickly. Name the situation as it is, don't filter it through your judgments. Give your assent only to that which is actually true.

Be careful whom you associate with. It is human to imitate the habits of those with whom we interact. We inadvertently adopt their interests, their opinions, their values, and their habit of interpreting events.

A thing either is what it appears to be; or it is not, but yet appears to be; or it is, but does not appear to be; or it is not, and does not appear to be.

Finally, when he crowns it off by becoming a senator, then he becomes a slave in fine company, then he experiences the poshest and most prestigious form of enslavement.

Understand what words you use first, then use them.

A ship should not be held by a single anchor; neither should life depend upon a single hope.

Who then is invincible? The one who cannot be upset by anything outside their reasoned choice.

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

Embrace reality. Think about what delights you - the small luxuries on which you depend, the people whom you cherish most. But remember that they have their own distinct character, which is quite a separate matter from how we happen to regard them.

Whoever chafes at the conditions dealt by fate is unskilled in the art of life; whoever bears with them nobly and makes wise use of the results is a man who deserves to be considered good.

Law intends indeed to do service to human life, but it is not able when men do not choose to accept her services; for it is only in those who are obedient to her that she displays her special virtue.

If you think you control things that are in the control of others, you will lament. You will be disturbed and you will blame both gods and men.

Try to enjoy the great festival of life with other men.

being attached in this way to any number of things, we're weighed down by them and dragged down. [16] That is why, if the weather prevents us from sailing, we sit there in a state of anxiety, constantly peering around. 'What wind is this?' The North Wind. And what does it matter to us and to him? 'When will the West Wind blow?' When it so chooses, my good friend, or rather, when Aeolus chooses; for God hasn't appointed you to be controller of the winds, he has appointed Aeolus. [17] What are we to do, then? To make the best of what lies within our power, and deal with everything else as it comes.

Desire and happiness cannot live together.

Never praise or blame people on common grounds; look to their judgements exclusively. Because that is the determining factor, which makes everyone's actions either good or bad.

When you have decided that a thing ought to be done and are doing it, never avoid bein seen doing it, though many shall form an unfavorable opinion about it. For if it is not right to do it, avoid doing the thing; but if it is right, why are you afraid of those who shall find fault wrongly?

The philosopher's lecture room is a 'hospital': you ought not to walk out of it in a state of pleasure, but in pain; for you are not in good condition when you arrive.

To-day, when the crisis calls you, will you go off and display your recitation and harp on, 'How cleverly I compose dialogues'? Nay, fellow man, make this your object, 'Look how I fail not to get what I will. Look how I escape what I will to avoid. Let death come and you shall know; bring me pains, prison, dishonour, condemnation.' This is the true field of display for a young man come from school. Leave those other trifles to other men; let no one ever hear you say a word on them, do not tolerate any compliments upon them; assume the air of being no one and of knowing nothing. Show that you know this only, how not to fail and how not to fall.