Quotes from Epictetus

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.

Most people are impulsive, however, and having committed to the thing, they persist, just making more confusion for themselves and others until it all end in mutual recrimination.

I want to die, even though I don't have to.

understand that every event is indifferent and nothing to you, of whatever sort it may be; for it will be in your power to make a right use of it, and this no one can hinder.

When you find your direction, check to make sure that it is the right one.

There are two things that must be rooted out in human beings - arrogant opinion and mistrust. Arrogant opinion expects that there is nothing further needed, and mistrust assumes that under the torrent of circumstance there can be no happiness.

You are a little soul carrying a dead body, as Epictetus said.

People find particular things, however, frightening; and it's when someone is able to threaten or entice us with those that the man himself becomes frightening.

Is you naturally entitled, then, to a good father? No, only to a father. Is

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.

Prefer enduring satisfaction to immediate gratification.

Resistance is vain in any case; it only leads to useless struggle while inviting grief and sorrow.

the good of man, and likewise his ill, lies in how he exercises his choice, while everything else is nothing to us

Follow your principles as though they were laws. Do not worry if others criticize or laugh at you, for their opinions are not your concern.

Remember to act always as if you were at a symposium. When the food or drink comes around, reach out and take some politely; if it passes you by don't try to pulling it back. And if it has not reached you yet, don't let your desire run ahead of you, be patient until your turn comes.

If you decide to do something, don't shrink from being seen doing it, even if the majority of people disapprove. If you're wrong to do it, then you should shrink from doing it altogether; but if you're right, then why worry how people will judge you?

Every circumstance comes with two handles, which one of which you can hold it, while with the other conditions are insupportable.

Whatever your mission, stick by it as if it were a law and you would be committing sacrilege to betray it. Pay no attention to whatever people might say; this no longer should influence you.

None of these things are foretold to me; but either to my paltry body, or property, or reputation, or children, or wife. But to me all omens are lucky, if I will. For whichever of these things happens, it is in my control to derive advantage from it.

If you win the adoration of others by pretending to be someone you're not, you may gain celebrity or high office—but you will lose out on the fulfillment of a life best-suited to your attributes and abilities.

It is one thing to put bread and wine away in a store-room, and quite another to eat them. What is eaten is digested and distributed around the body, to become sinews, flesh, bones, blood, a good complexion, sound breathing. What is stored away is ready at hand, to be sure, to be taken out and displayed whenever you wish, but you derive no benefit from it, except that of having the reputation of possessing it. [

It is much better to die of hunger unhindered by grief and fear than to live affluently beset with worry, dread, suspicion and unchecked desire.

Who is a friend? his answer was, A second self (alter ego).

If you are told that someone is talking badly of you, don't defend yourself against the story but reply: "Obviously he didn't know my other faults, or he would have mentioned them as well.