Epictetus

Find the best quotes, maxims and aphorisms of Epictetus

Biography : *Approximate years of birth and death.
Born: 50 - Died: 125
Period:
2nd century
1st century
Place of birth: Turkey
Turkey

Turkey

Epictetus - Quotes

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.
Epictetus - Handbook (Enchiridion) /

Tell yourself, first of all, what kind of man you want to be; and then go ahead with what you are doing.
Epictetus /

to be

Tell yourself, first of all, what kind of man you want to be; and then go ahead with what you are doing.

So when any one makes you angry, know that it is your own thought that has angered you.
Epictetus - Handbook (Enchiridion) /

anger

So when any one makes you angry, know that it is your own thought that has angered you.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to external things.
Epictetus /

Don't demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.
Epictetus - Handbook (Enchiridion) /

To accuse others for one's own misfortunes is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.
Epictetus /

oneself

We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope.
Epictetus

If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it.
Epictetus

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
Epictetus

It takes more than just a good looking body. You've got to have the heart and soul to go with it.
Epictetus

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

Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.
Epictetus

freedom

If you seek truth you will not seek victory by dishonorable means, and if you find truth you will become invincible.
Epictetus

truth

Freedom is the right to live as we wish.
Epictetus

freedom

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.
Epictetus

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.
Epictetus

Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.
Epictetus

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.
Epictetus

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.
Epictetus

time

It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death.
Epictetus

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
Epictetus

Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.
Epictetus

life

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.
Epictetus

No great thing is created suddenly.
Epictetus

When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.
Epictetus

Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.
Epictetus

First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
Epictetus

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
Epictetus

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.
Epictetus

freedom

God has entrusted me with myself.
Epictetus