Quotes from Epictetus

Put away the fear of death, and however much thunder and lightning you have to face, you will find the mind capable of remaining calm and composed regardless.

In time, you will grow to be confident that there is not a single impression that you will not have the moral means to tolerate.

It betrays a lack of an interior life when a person is overly focused on bodily things—whether indulging in food and drink, exercising to exhaustion, or spending excessive time on grooming. Care for your body as needed, but put your main energies and efforts into cultivating your mind.

Every moment think steadily as a Roman and a man to do what thou hast in hand with perfect and simple dignity, and feeling of affection, and freedom, and justice; and to give thyself relief from all other thoughts.

How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?

Whenever someone helps or hinders you, or praises or criticizes you, remember that they see you only through the lens of their own impressions. If they act or speak from a warped perspective, they hurt themselves—not you.

Here is the primary means of training yourself: as soon as you leave in the morning, subject whatever you see or hear to close study. Then formulate answers as if they were posing questions.

It was the first and most striking characteristic of Socrates never to become heated in discourse, never to utter an injurious or insulting word - on the contrary, he persistently bore insult from others and thus put an end to the fray.

Let someone transfer these opinions to the workings of the will, and I personally guarantee his peace of mind, no matter what his outward circumstances are like.

Time relieves the foolish from sorrow, but reason relieves the wise.

The soul is like a bowl of water, with the soul's impressions like the rays of light that strike the water. [21] Now, if the water is disturbed, the light appears to be disturbed together with it – though of course it is not.

Remember, it is not enough to be hit or insulted to be harmed, you must believe that you are being harmed. If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation. Which is why it is essential that we not respond impulsively to impressions; take a moment before reacting, and you will find it is easier to maintain control.

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.

It is for you to arrange your priorities; but whatever you decide to do, don't do it resentfully, as if you were being imposed on.

At a feast, do not give a speech about how everyone should eat. Only eat as you should. Socrates never made a spectacle of himself or put on an air of authority. In philosophical conversations, follow his example—stay mostly silent; ask questions and listen intently. If anyone calls you ignorant and says you know nothing, be sure that you are now a true student of philosophy.

Because when you engage in the same things as the masses, you lower yourself to their level.

An ignorant person is one who is tossed about between elation and despair by external forces and events.

You must realize that death and illness are bound to overtake us whatever it is we're doing. They overtake the farmer at the plough, the sailor at the helm; [6] what do you want to be doing when they come upon you? Because you have to be doing something when you go; and if you can find anything better than this to be doing, then do it by all means.

Did you ever see me any way but with a smile on my face, ready to obey any orders that you had for me?

Whatever is enough is abundant in the eyes of virtue.

Don't demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.

Geef me de moed om alles te accepteren wat niet in mijn vermogen ligt, de kracht om alles te veranderen wat wel in mijn vermogen ligt, en de wijsheid om tussen die twee te onderscheiden.

Nature has given to men one tongue, but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.

Goodness exists independently of our conception of it. The good is out there and it always has been out there, even before we began to exist.