Quotes from Epictetus

Not things, but opinions about things, trouble men.

If a man is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault, for God made all men to be happy.

Man is troubled not by events, but by the meaning he gives them.

In the long run, every man will pay the penalty for this own misdeeds.

It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?

Law intends indeed to do service to human life, but it is not able when men do not choose to accept her services; for it is only in those who are obedient to her that she displays her special virtue.

If any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone. For God hath made all men to enjoy felicity and constancy of good.

No man is disturbed by things, but by his opinion about things.

Each man's life is a kind of campaign, and a long and complicated one at that. You have to maintain the character of a soldier, and do each separate act at the bidding of the General.

If we are not stupid or insincere when we say that the good or ill of man lies within his own will, and that all beside is nothing to us, why are we still troubled?

"But to be hanged - is that not unendurable?" Even so, when a man feels that it is reasonable, he goes off and hangs himself.

A man that seeks truth and loves it must be reckoned precious to any human society.

Man is not fully free unless he is master of himself.

Asked, Who is the rich man? Epictetus replied, ?He who is content.

Difficulty shows what men are.

Unless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed.

You have been given your own work to do. Get to it right now, do your best at it, and don't be concerned with who is watching you. Create your own merit.

Never look for your work in one place and your progress in another.

If you have anything better to be doing when death overtakes you, get to work on that.

Do not laugh much or often or unrestrainedly.

"It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters."

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

You are a principal work, a fragment of [Goddess herself], you have in yourself a part of [her]. Why then are you ignorant of your high birth?

Every art and every faculty contemplates certain things as its principal objects.