Quotes from Epictetus

Pain too is just a scary mask: look under it and you will see. The body sometimes suffers, but relief is never far behind.

If reason tells you a pleasure is wholesome and harmless, you may enjoy it in moderation. But take care not to let your happiness gradually become dependent on it.

if you know you are in the right, why fear those who misjudge you?

You are invincible if nothing outside the will can disconcert you.

There is nothing more inspiring than a speaker who makes clear to his audience that he has need of them.

What else is freedom but the power to live our life the way we want? 'Nothing.

Anyone who's dissatisfied with the circumstances assigned him by fortune is unskilled in the art of living, while anyone who nobly endures his circumstances and makes reasonable use of what they have to offer deserves to be called a good person.

If you want not just peace and contentment, but power and wealth too, you may forfeit the former in seeking the latter, and will lose your freedom and happiness along the way. Whenever distress or displeasure arises in your mind, remind yourself, "This is only my interpretation, not reality itself." Then ask whether it falls within or outside your sphere of power. And, if it is beyond your power to control, let it go.

When anyone provokes you, remember that it is actually your own opinion provoking you. It is not the person who insults or attacks you who torments your mind, but the view you take of these things. Do not be fooled by how things first appear. With time and greater perspective, you can regain inner peace.

Be confident in everything outside the will, and cautious in everything under the will's control.

Tell us your secrets.' [23] 'I refuse, as this is up to me.' 'I will put you in chains.' 'What's that you say, friend? It's only my leg you will chain, not even God can conquer my will.' [24] 'I will throw you into prison.' 'Correction – it is my body you will throw there.' 'I will behead you.' 'Well, when did I ever claim that mine was the only neck that couldn't be severed?

But what master, I wonder, do you yourself serve? Money? Women? Boys? The emperor or one of his subordinates? It has to be one of them, or you wouldn't fret about such things.

And yet, while there is only the one thing we can care for and devote ourselves to, we choose instead to care about and attach ourselves to a score of others: to our bodies, to our property, to our family, friends and slaves.

It isn't possible to change your behaviour and still be the same person you were before.

A boxer derives the greatest advantage from his sparring partner – and my accuser is my sparring partner. He trains me in patience, civility and even temper. [10] I mean, a doctor who puts me in a headlock and sets a dislocated pelvis or shoulder – he benefits me, however painful the procedure. So too does a trainer when he commands me to 'lift the weight with both your hands' – and the heavier it is, the greater the benefit to me.

And yet, while there is only the one thing we can care for and devote ourselves to, we choose instead to care about and attach ourselves to a score of others: to our bodies, to our property, to our family, friends and slaves. [15] And, being attached to many things, we are weighed down and dragged along with them.

Transfer caution to the will and the functions of the will, and the mere wish will bring with it the power of avoidance. But if we direct it at what is outside us and is none of our responsibility, wanting instead to avoid what's in the control of others, we are necessarily going to meet with fear, upset and confusion.

If you take care of it and identify with it, you will never be blocked or frustrated; you won't have to complain, and never will need to blame or flatter anyone.

the ability to make good use of impressions

Make the best use of what is in our power, and treat the rest in accordance with its nature. And what is its nature? However God decides.

distinguish between your own and not your own, the things which are in your power and not in your power

Will you never come to a realisation of who you are, what you have been born for and the purpose for which the gift of vision was made in our case?

What is death? A scary mask. Take it off – see, it doesn't bite.

Which of us does not admire what Lycurgus the Spartan did? A young citizen had put out his eye, and been handed over to him by the people to be punished at his own discretion. Lycurgus abstained from all vengeance, but on the contrary instructed and made a good man of him. Producing him in public in the theatre, he said to the astonished Spartans: I received this young man at your hands full of violence and wanton insolence; I restore him to you in his right mind and fit to serve his country.