Epictetus Stoicism Quotes

No one is ever unhappy because of someone else. ~ Epictetus

He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at. ~ Epictetus

Your primary desire, says Epictetus, should be your desire not to be frustrated by forming desires you won't be able to fulfill. ~ William B. Irvine

Whoever wants to be free, therefore, let him not want or avoid anything that is up to others. Otherwise he will necessarily be a slave. ~ Epictetus

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

We do not choose our own parts in life, and have nothing to do with those parts. Our duty is confined to playing them well. ~ Epictetus

The second best thing to not chasing success is chasing success that was defined by you, not for you. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

When you let go of your attention for a little while, do not think you may recover it whenever you please. ~ Epictetus

All that exists is the seed of what will emerge from it. ~ Marcus Aurelius

Silence is often the wisest reply. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

If I was a nightingale I would sing like a nightingale; if a swan, like a swan. But since I am a rational creature my role is to praise God. ~ Epictetus

A properly educated leader, especially when harassed and under pressure, will know from his study of history and the classics that circumstances very much like those he is encountering have occurred from time to time on this earth since the beginning of history. He will avoid the self-indulgent error of seeing himself in a predicament so unprecedented, so unique, as to justify his making an exception to law, custom or morality in favor of himself. The making of such exceptions has been the theme of public life throughout much of our lifetimes. For twenty years, we've been surrounded by gamesmen unable to cope with the wisdom of the ages. They make exceptions to law and custom in favor of themselves because they choose to view ordinary dilemmas as unprecedented crises. ~ James B. Stockdale

Remember that you are in actor in a play of such a kind that the author chooses ... For this is your duty, to act well the part that is given to you; but to select the part belongs to another. ~ Epictetus

The cause of all human evils is the not being able to apply general principles to special cases. ~ Epictetus

You become what you give your attention to. ~ Epictetus

We must be afraid of neither poverty nor exile nor imprisonment; of fear itself only should we be afraid. ~ Epictetus

People are ready to acknowledge some of their faults, but will admit to others only with reluctance. ~ Epictetus

He yawned; he had finished the day, and he had also finished with his youth. Various tried and proved rules of conduct had already discreetly offered him their services: disillusioned epicureanism, smiling tolerance, resignation, flat seriousness, stoicism
all the aids whereby a man may savor, minute by minute, like a connoisseur, the failure of a life ... 'I have attained the age of reason. ~ Jean-Paul Sartre

Peace of heart that is won by refusing to bear the common yoke of human sympathy is a peace unworthy of a Christian. To seek tranquility by stopping our ears to the cries of human pain is to make ourselves not Christian but a kind of degenerate stoic having no relation either to stoicism or Christianity. ~ Aiden Wilson Tozer

It is childish to be surprised by something that you knew exists or is possible. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

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

We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them ~ Epictetus

For determining the rational and the irrational, we employ not only our estimates of the value of external things, but also the criterion of that which is in keeping with one's own character. (Book I.2, 17p) ~ Epictetus

What is death? A scary mask. Take it off-see, it doesn't bite. ~ Epictetus

The pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us greatest delight. ~ Epictetus

Stoicism was one of the new philosophical movements of the Hellenistic period. ~ Anonymous

A man whose mind has completely left childhood behind would not be surprised if he were to walk in on his wife having sex with her father … or with his mother. ~ Mokokoma Mokhonoana

Epictetus told his students, when they'd quote some great thinker, to picture themselves observing the person having sex. It's funny, you should try it the next time someone intimidates you or makes you feel insecure. See them in your mind, grunting, groaning, and awkward in their private life - just like the rest of us. ~ Ryan Holiday

There was no sign of Plato, and I was told later that he had gone to live in his Republic, where he was cheerfully submitting to his own Laws. [ ... ] None of the Stoics were present. Rumour had it that they were still clambering up the steep hill of Virtue [ ... ]. As for the Sceptics, it appeared that they were extremely anxious to get there, but still could not quite make up their minds whether or not the island really existed. ~ Lucian Of Samosata

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

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

Whereas a belief in an absurd world arises out of the fundamental disharmony of a person searching for meaning in an apparently meaninglessness universe, an existential nihilist displays impassive intellectual stoicism towards their eventual mortality while embracing a passionate artistic commitment to munity against the underlying syndrome of insignificance and confusion encasing life. ~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Emilio was certainly within his rights not to reveal the sordid details of his childhood even to his friends. Or perhaps especially to his friends, whose good opinion of him, he might feel, would not survive the revelations. ~ Mary Doria Russell

which is to say, stand with the philosopher, or else with the mob!" - EPICTETUS, DISCOURSES, 3.15.13 W ~ Ryan Holiday

Remember that all we have is "on loan" from Fortune, which can reclaim it without our permission - indeed, without even advance notice. Thus, we should love all our dear ones, but always with the thought that we have no promise that we may keep them forever - nay, no promise even that we may keep them for long. ~ Seneca.

God has entrusted me with myself. ~ Epictetus

With patience and calm, persistence and stoicism, good handwriting and careful labeling, they would meet persecution, indignity, and hardship head-on. ~ Michael Chabon

Only the educated are free. ~ Epictetus

Freedom, you see, is having events go in accordance with our will, never contrary to it. ~ Epictetus

26. The will of nature may be learned from those things in which we don't distinguish from each other. For example, when our neighbor's boy breaks a cup, or the like, we are presently ready to say, "These things will happen." Be assured, then, that when your own cup likewise is broken, you ought to be affected just as when another's cup was broken. Apply this in like manner to greater things. Is the child or wife of another dead? There is no one who would not say, "This is a human accident." but if anyone's own child happens to die, it is presently, "Alas I how wretched am I!" But it should be remembered how we are affected in hearing the same thing concerning others. ~ Epictetus

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

The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control. Where then do I look for good and evil? Not to uncontrollable externals, but within myself to the choices that are my own... ~ Epictetus

These are the signs of a wise man: to reprove nobody, to praise nobody, to blame nobody, nor even to speak of himself or his own merits. ~ Epictetus

Neither the victories of the Olympic Games nor those achieved in battles make the man happy. The only victories that make him happy are those achieved against himself. Temptations and tests are combats. You have beaten one, two, many times; still fight. If you defeat at last you will be happy your entire life, as if you have always defeated. ~ Epictetus

Epictetus say that everything has two handles, one by which it can be borne and one which it cannot. If your brother sins against you, he says, don't take hold of it by the wrong he did you but by the fact that he's your brother. That's how it can be borne. ~ Anne Tyler

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

It is not the man who has too little that is poor, but the one who hankers after more. ~ Seneca.

We ought not, therefore, to give over our hearts for good to any one part of the world. We should live with the conviction: 'I wasn‟t born for one particular corner: the whole world‟s my home country. ~ Seneca

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

The profound realization, thanks to the practice of Stoicism, that acquiring the things that those in my social circle typically crave and work hard to afford will, in the long run, make zero difference in how happy I am and will in no way contribute to my having a good life. ~ William B. Irvine