The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.
Epictetus
We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
Epictetus
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
Epictetus
It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
Epictetus
Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.
Epictetus
If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
Epictetus
People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.
Epictetus
Only the educated are free.
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
Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
Epictetus
Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
Epictetus
First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
Epictetus
It takes more than just a good looking body. You’ve got to have the heart and soul to go with it.
Epictetus
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
Epictetus
Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.
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
No man is free who is not master of himself.
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
Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.
Epictetus
The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.
Epictetus
We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope.
Epictetus
If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.
Epictetus
He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
Epictetus
The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
Epictetus
Nothing great 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
Not every difficult and dangerous thing is suitable for training, but only that which is conducive to success in achieving the object of our effort.
Epictetus
It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.
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
All religions must be tolerated… for every man must get to heaven in his own way.
Epictetus
Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.
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
Never in any case say I have lost such a thing, but I have returned it. Is your child dead? It is a return. Is your wife dead? It is a return. Are you deprived of your estate? Is not this also a return?
Epictetus
If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please.
Epictetus
Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.
Epictetus
Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.
Epictetus
Freedom is the right to live as we wish.
Epictetus
Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.
Epictetus
You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.
Epictetus
It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.
Epictetus
If you wish to be a writer, write.
Epictetus
No great thing is created suddenly.
Epictetus
Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.
Epictetus
God has entrusted me with myself.
Epictetus
Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.
Epictetus
Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the world.
Epictetus
If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.
Epictetus
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
Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.
Epictetus
If you seek truth you will not seek victory by dishonorable means, and if you find truth you will become invincible.
Epictetus
Unless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed.
Epictetus
All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.
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
Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.
Epictetus
