Quotes from Epictetus

If you act rashly, without regard to consequences, you may defeat your purposes.

It is not your concern by what means something returns to the Source from which it came.

Most of us would be seized with fear if our bodies went numb, and would do everything possible to avoid it, yet we take no interest at all in the numbing of our souls.

If it should ever happen to you to be turned to externals in order to please some person, you must know that you have lost your purpose in life.

Do you think freedom is something good?' 'The greatest good of all.' 'Can anyone in possession of the greatest good be unhappy or unfortunate?' 'No.

For as long as the Source entrusts something to your hands, treat it as something borrowed, like a traveller at an inn.

only judge your own thoughts, desires, and actions as good or evil.

And then we'll be emulating Socrates,* once we're able to write hymns of praise in prison.

But prove to me that one who holds inferior judgments can prevail over a man who is superior in his judgments. You never will prove it, nor anything like it; for the law of nature and of god is this: Let the better always be superior to the worse… Thus I, too, lost my lamp to a thief because the thief was better at keeping awake than I. But he bought a lamp at the price of being a thief, a rogue, and a brute. That seemed to him a good bargain. Epictetus

When you attend the games, do not get emotionally invested in the rivalry. Wish only that the best team or athlete wins. Avoid the extremes of elation at a win and devastation at a loss.

But if you try to avoid what you cannot control—sickness, poverty, death—you will inflict useless mental suffering upon yourself.

If you have a favorite cup, remember that it is only a cup that you prefer—if it is broken, you can bear it.

It is not the events but our viewpoint toward events that is the determining factor. We ought to be more concerned about removing wrong thoughts from the mind than removing tumors and abscesses from the body.

And when you ask your employee to do something, remember that she may not do as you wish. But giving her the power to upset you does no good for either of you.

If anything except the honourable is good, we shall be hounded by greed for life, and by greed for the things which provide life with its furnishings, – an intolerable state, subject to no limits, unstable. The only good, therefore, is that which is honourable, that which is subject to bounds.

What's odd in asserting that what's bad for anything is what runs contrary to its nature? You say it for everything else, why make humanity the sole exception?

it is no easy feat to hold onto your inner harmony while collecting accolades. When grasping for one, you are likely to drop the other.

When you are feeling upset, angry, or sad, don't blame another for your state of mind. Your condition is the result of your own opinions and interpretations.

It's like weaving: the weaver does not make the wool, he makes the best use of whatever wool he's given.

It was thus an excellent reply that the woman made when she wanted to send a boatload of provisions to the exiled Gratilla;* for when someone said to her, 'Domitian will merely confiscate them,' she replied, 'Better that he should take them away than that I should fail to send them.

And can you be forced by anyone to desire something against your will? 'No.

If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend its increase.

Pidä silmiesi edessä joka päivä kuolema ja maanpako ja kaikki kauheana näyttäytyvä, ennen kaikkea kuolema. Silloin et koskaan ajattele mitään matalamielistä etkä himoitse mitään likaa.

Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths.