Quotes By Epictetus

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

It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.

You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.

If you wish to be a writer, write.

Do not laugh much or often or unrestrainedly.

If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.

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.

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

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

Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.

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

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.

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.

There is nothing good or evil save in the will.

Freedom is the right to live as we wish.

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

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

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

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?

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

Silence is safer than speech.

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

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

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.

Only the educated are free.

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

It takes more than just a good looking body. You've got to have the heart and soul to go with it.

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

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

Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.