Quotes from Epictetus

Let your will to avoid have no concern with what is not in man's power; direct it only to things in man's power that are contrary to nature.

Friend, lay hold with a desperate grasp, ere it is too late, on Freedom, on Tranquility, on Greatness of soul!

If you choose, you are free; if you choose, you need blame no man—accuse no man. All things will be at once according to your mind and according to the Mind of God.

If you wish it, you are free; if you wish it, you'll find fault with no one, you'll cast blame on no one, and everything that comes about will do so in accordance with your own will and that of God.

He who is discontented with what he has, and with what has been granted to him by fortune, is one who is ignorant of the art of living, but he who bears that in a noble spirit, and makes reasonable use of all that comes from it, deserves to be regarded as a good man.

I must die; so must I die groaning too?

Stop honouring externals, quit turning yourself into the tool of mere matter, or of people who can supply you or deny you those material things.

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.

It has been ordained that there be summer and winter, abundance and dearth, virtue and vice, and all such opposites for the harmony of the whole, and (Zeus) has given each of us a body, property, and companions.

It is always our choice whether or not we wish to pay the price for life's rewards. And often it is best for us not to pay the price, for the price might be our integrity.

Never say of anything that I've lost it, only that I've given it back.

CIRCUMSTANCES DON'T MAKE THE MAN, THEY ONLY REVEAL HIM TO HIMSELF

Disease is an impediment to the body, but not to the will, unless the will itself chooses. Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to the will. And add this reflection on the occasion of everything that happens; for you will find it an impediment to something else, but not to yourself. X

Conduct yourself in all matters, grand and public or small and domestic, in accordance with the laws of nature. Harmonizing your will with nature should be your utmost ideal.

If you have assumed a character beyond your strength, you have both played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is within your powers.

What, for instance, does it mean to be insulted? [29] Stand by a rock and insult it, and what have you accomplished? If someone responds to insult like a rock, what has the abuser gained with his invective? If, however, he has his victim's weakness to exploit, then his efforts are worth his while.

What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgements about these things.

For what else is tragedy than the portrayal in tragic verse of the sufferings of men who have attached high value to external things? [27]

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.

When then any man assents to that which is false, be assured that he did not intend to assent to it as false, for every soul is unwillingly deprived of the truth, as Plato says; but the falsity seemed to him to be true.

Protect what belongs to you at all costs; don't desire what belongs to another.

He wants what he cannot have, and does not want what he can't refuse — and isn't aware of it. He doesn't know the difference between his own possessions and others'. Because, if he did, he would never be thwarted of disappointed. Or nervous.

Control thy passions lest they take vengeance on thee.

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