Quotes About Philosophy

For it is not death or pain that is to be feared, but the fear of pain or death.

Sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy.

Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person's own life.

These reasonings have no logical connection: I am richer than you; therefore I am your superior. I am more eloquent than you; therefore I am your superior. The true logical connection is rather this: I am richer than you; therefore my possessions must exceed yours. I am more eloquent than you; therefore my style must surpass yours. But you, after all, consist in neither property nor in style.

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

You ought to realize, you take up very little space in the world as a whole—your body, that is; in reason, however, you yield to no one, not even to the gods, because reason is not measured in size but sense. So why not care for that side of you, where you and the gods are equals?

Remember from now on whenever something tends to make you unhappy, draw on this principle: 'This is no misfortune; but bearing with it bravely is a blessing.

When a man is proud because he can understand and explain the writings of Chrysippus, say to yourself, if Chrysippus had not written obscurely, this man would have had nothing to be proud of.

It is not events that disturb people, it is their judgements concerning them.

Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away with me, for no one can deprive me of these; on the contrary, they alone are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices me wherever I am or whatever I do.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.

The knowledge of what is mine and what is not mine, what I can and cannot do. I must die. But must I die bawling? I must be exiled; but is there anything to keep me from going with a smile, calm and self-composed?

For I am not Eternity, but a human being—a part of the whole, as an hour is part of the day. I must come like the hour, and like the hour must pass!

Restrict yourself to choice and refusal; and exercise them carefully, with discipline and detachment.

What saith Antisthenes? Hast thou never heard?— It is a kingly thing, O Cyrus, to do well and to be evil spoken of.

He who exercises wisdom, exercises the knowledge which is about God.

Be free from grief not through insensibility like the irrational animals, nor through want of thought like the foolish, but like a man of virtue by having reason as the consolation of grief.

Those proficient praise no one, blame no one, and accuse no one. They say nothing concerning their self as being anybody or knowing anything.

The wise person knows it is fruitless to project hopes and fears on the future. This only leads to forming melodramatic representations in your mind and wasting time.

Asked how a man should best grieve his enemy, Epictetus replied, By setting himself to live the noblest life himself.

For in this Case, we are not to give Credit to the Many, who say, that none ought to be educated but the Free; but rather to the Philosophers, who say, that the Well-educated alone are free.

Let your will to avoid have no concern with what is not in man's power; direct it only to things in man's power that are contrary to nature.

I must die; so must I die groaning too?

Stop honouring externals, quit turning yourself into the tool of mere matter, or of people who can supply you or deny you those material things.