Epictetus quotes - page 6

You may be always victorious if you will never enter into any contest where the issue does not wholly depend upon yourself. (Epictetus)
Silence is safer than speech. View quote
Epictetus
If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother. View quote
Epictetus
Unless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed. View quote
Epictetus
Whoever does not regard what he has as most ample wealth, is unhappy, though he be master of the world. View quote
Epictetus
Do not laugh much or often or unrestrainedly. View quote
Epictetus
We tell lies, yet it is easy to show that lying is immoral. View quote
Epictetus
If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please. View quote
Epictetus
There is nothing good or evil save in the will. View quote
Epictetus
We ought to flee the friendship of the wicked, and the enmity of the good. View quote
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? View quote
Epictetus
Friend, bethink you first what it is that you would do, and then what your own nature is able to bear. View quote
Epictetus
Give thyself more diligently to reflection: know thyself: take counsel with the Godhead; without God put thine hand into nothing. View quote
Epictetus
One who knows not who he is and to what end he was born; what kind of world this is and with whom he is associated therein; one who cannot distinguish Good and Evil, Beauty and Foulness,... Truth and Falsehood, will never follow Reason in shaping his desires and impulses and repulsions, nor yet in assent, denial, or suspension of judgment; but will in one word go about deaf and blind, thinking himself to be somewhat, when he is in truth of no account. Is there anything new in all this? Is not this ignorance the cause of all the mistakes and mischances of men since the human race began?... View quote
Epictetus
Does anyone bathe in a mighty little time? Don't say that he does it ill, but in a mighty little time. Does anyone drink a great quantity of wine? Don't say that he does ill, but that he drinks a great quantity. For, unless you perfectly understand the principle from which anyone acts, how should you know if he acts ill? Thus you will not run the hazard of assenting to any appearances but such as you fully comprehend. View quote
Epictetus
If a man would pursue Philosophy, his first task is to throw away conceit. For it is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he has a conceit that he already knows. View quote
Epictetus
Study how to give as one that is sick: that thou mayest hereafter give as one that is whole. Fast; drink water only; abstain altogether from desire, that thou mayest hereafter confirm thy desire to Reason. View quote
Epictetus
If the room is smoky, if only moderately, I will stay; if there is too much smoke I will go. Remember this, keep a firm hold on it, the door is always open. View quote
Epictetus
Piety towards the Gods, be sure, consists chiefly in thinking rightly concerning them-that they are, and that they govern the Universe with goodness and justice; and that thou thyself art appointed to obey them, and to submit under all circumstances that arise; acquiescing cheerfully in whatever may happen, sure that it is brought to pass and accomplished by the most Perfect Understanding. Thus thou wilt never find fault with the Gods, nor charge them with neglecting thee. View quote
Epictetus
If a Cynic is an object of pity, he seems a mere beggar; all turn away, all are offended at him. Nor should be be slovenly of look, so as not to scare men from him in this way either; on the contrary, his very roughness should be clean and attractive. (Epictetus)
If what philosophers say of the kinship of God and Men be true, what remains for men to do but as Socrates did: never, when asked one's country, to answer, 'I am an Athenian or a Corinthian,' but 'I am a citizen of the world. View quote
Epictetus
Whatever moral rules you have deliberately proposed to yourself abide by them as they were laws, and as if you would be guilty of impiety by violating any of them. Don't regard what anyone says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours. How long, then, will you put off thinking yourself worthy of the highest improvements and follow the distinctions of reason? You have received the philosophical theorems, with which you ought to be familiar, and you have been familiar with them. What other master, then, do you wait for, to throw upon that the delay of reforming yourself?... Let whatever appears to be the best be to you an inviolable law. View quote
Epictetus
Who is there whom bright and agreeable children do not attract to play and creep and prattle with them? View quote
Epictetus
When we are invited to a banquet, we take what is set before us; and were one to call upon his host to set fish upon the table or sweet things, he would be deemed absurd. Yet in a word, we ask the Gods for what they do not give; and that, although they have given us so many things! View quote
Epictetus