Epictetus quotes

Give me a man who cares how he shall do anything, not for the obtaining of a thing, but who cares about his own energy.

Stand by a stone and revile it, and what will you gain?

Make no tragedy show of the thing, but speak of it as it is.

Make trial of your power, and you will know how far it reaches.

Keep by every means what is your own; do not desire what belongs to others.

Man, if you are anything, both walk alone and talk to yourself, and do not hide yourself in the chorus.

Is it not better to be modest than to be rich?

In a word, you must surrender yourself to the trainer, as you do to a physician.

If you choose to be modest and faithful, who shall not allow you to be so?

Examine a little at last, look around, stir yourself up, that you may know who you are.

Do you not know that opinion conquers itself, and is not conquered by another?

Do you seek a reward for a good man greater than doing what is good and just?

If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write.

Do not admire your clothes, and then you will not be angry with the thief.

Man, you have forgotten your purpose: you were not travelling to this inn, but you were passing through it.

What would Hercules have been if he said: How shall a great lion not appear to me, or a great boar, or savage men?

Have you anything better or greater to see than the sun, the moon, the stars, the whole earth, the sea?

Always remember what is your own, and what belongs to another; and you will not be disturbed.

Know you not that a good man does nothing for the sake of appearance, but for the sake of doing right?

Nothing great, said Epictetus, is produced suddenly, since not even the grape or the fig is.

If you would improve, submit to be considered without sense and foolish with respect to externals.

Never say about anything, I have lost it, but say I have restored it.

Of things some are in our power, and others are not.

Let not these thoughts afflict you, I shall live unhonored and be nobody nowhere.

Straightway then practise saying to every harsh appearance: You are an appearance, and in no manner what you appear to be.

Wish to be considered to know nothing; and if you shall seem to some to be a person of importance, distrust yourself.

Everything has two handles, the one by which it may be borne, the other by which it may not.

Begin then from little things.

In every act observe the things which come first, and those which follow it; and so proceed to the act.

The condition and characteristic of a philosopher is this: he expects all advantage and all harm from himself.

Disease is an impediment to the body, but not to the will, unless the will itself chooses.

In every work you will take in hand mark well what must go before and what must follow, and so proceed.

Let not another's vice be thy evil.

Against habit set the contrary habit.

Is it enough that we merely wish to become good and wise, or must we not also learn something?

Try your power, and you shall know how far it reaches.

Short, indeed, is this time of your sojourn, and easy to bear for those that are so minded.

Like the hour, I must arrive, and, like the hour, pass away.

Remember that in life you ought to behave as at a banquet.

You can be invincible, if you enter into no contest in which it is not in your power to conquer.

You must either cultivate your own ruling faculty, or external things.

Does it seem to you so small and worthless a thing to be good and happy?

How can you conquer the opinion of another man?

If they are fools, why do you care about them?