Epictetus Quotes

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

If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.

Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.

We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.

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

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.

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

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

All religions must be tolerated... for... every man must get to heaven in his own way.

You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.

In order to please others, we loose our hold on our life’s purpose.

If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: "He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned".

What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are.

Seek not good from without: seek it from within yourselves, or you will never find it.

You may be always victorious if you will never enter into any contest where the issue does not wholly depend upon yourself.

No man is free who is not a master of himself.

Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well.

When you have shut your doors, and darkened your room, remember, never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone, but God is within, and your genius is within.

We must not believe the many, who say that only free people ought to be educated, but we should rather believe the philosophers who say that only the educated are free.

The good or ill of man lies within his own will.

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

If you set your heart upon philosophy, you must straightway prepare yourself to be laughed at and mocked by many who will say Behold a philosopher arisen among us! or How came you by that brow of scorn? But do you cherish no scorn, but hold to those things which seem to you the best, as one set by God in that place. Remember too, that if you abide in those ways, those who first mocked you, the same shall afterwards reverence you; but if you yield to them, you will be laughed at twice as much as before.

On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.

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