Epictetus

Quotes

• “Look now, this is the starting point of philosophy: the recognition that different people have conflicting opinions, the...”
• “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...”
• “Remember that you ought to behave in life as you would at a banquet. As something is being passed around it comes to you...”
• “Epictetus is a thinker we cannot forget, once we have encountered him, because he gets under our skin. He provokes and h...”
• “With every accident, ask yourself what abilities you have for making a proper use of it. If you see an attractive person...”
• “But tell me this: did you never love any person? [. . .] Were you never commanded by the person beloved to do something ...”
• “Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Therefore, give yourself fully to your endeavors. Decide to construct your...”
• “This quote is frequently attributed to Epictetus, e.g. by Brigid Delaney, Six ways to make your life easier and more pea...”
• “Upon all occasions we ought to have these maxims ready at hand: Conduct me, Jove, and you, O Destiny,Wherever your decre...”
• “These reasonings are unconnected: "I am richer than you, therefore I am better"; "I am more eloquent than you, therefore...”
• “Everything has two handles, the one by which it may be carried, the other by which it cannot. If your brother acts unjus...”
• “Let not that which in the case of another is contrary to nature become an evil for you; for you are born not to be humil...”
• “Has been ascribed to Epictetus since the late 1990s, (e.g. The Nassau Herald (1999), page 220). The first sentence ("Ten...”
• “When you do anything from a clear judgment that it ought to be done, never shun the being seen to do it, even though the...”
• “Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a w...”
• “Yet God hath not only granted these faculties, by which we may bear every event without being depressed or broken by it,...”
• “Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to ...”
• “O slavish man! will you not bear with your own brother, who has God for his Father, as being a son from the same stock, ...”
• “If a person gave your body to any stranger he met on his way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in ...”
• “The phenomenon of the will [in Epictetus ] [...] a different mental ability whose chief characteristic is that it speaks...”
• “If someone turned your body over to just any person who happened to meet you, you would be angry. But are you not ashame...”
• “It is the act of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition; it is the act of one who has begun to ...”
• “Why, then, do we wonder any longer that, although in material things we are thoroughly experienced, nevertheless in our ...”
• “For this too is a very pleasant strand woven into the Cynic's pattern of life; he must needs be flogged like an ass, and...”
• “The manner in which Epictetus, Montaigne, and Salomon de Tultie wrote, is the most usual, the most suggestive, the most ...”
• “If it is my interest to have a farm, it is my interest to take it away from my neighbour; if it is my interest to have a...”
• “If a man has reported to you, that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make any defense (answer) to what has been...”
• “When you close your doors, and make darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; na...”
• “Be bold to look towards God and say, "Use me henceforward for whatever you want; I am of one mind with you; I am yours; ...”
• “If these things are true; and if we are not stupid or insincere when we say that the good or ill of man lies within his ...”
• “Do you suppose that you can do the things you do now, and yet be a philosopher? Do you suppose that you can eat in the s...”
• “Remember that it is not he who gives abuse or blows who affronts, but the view we take of these things as insulting. Whe...”
• “No thing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I an...”
• “Every habit and faculty is confirmed and strengthened by the corresponding actions, that of walking by walking, that of ...”
• “When I see someone in anxiety, I say to myself, What can it be that this fellow wants? For if he did not want something ...”
• “Why, what is weeping and sighing? A judgement. What is misfortune? A judgement. What are strife, disagreement, fault-fin...”
• “Who are those people by whom you wish to be admired? Are they not these about whom you are in the habit of saying that t...”
• “Show me someone who is ill and yet happy, in danger and yet happy, dying and yet happy, exiled and yet happy. Show me su...”
• “For on these matters we should not trust the multitude who say that none ought to be educated but the free, but rather t...”
• “What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone ...”
• “Shall I show you the sinews of a philosopher? "What sinews are those?" - A will undisappointed; evils avoided; powers da...”
• “Other people's views and troubles can be contagious. Don't sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproduct...”
• “Be not swept off your feet by the vividness of the impression, but say, "Impression, wait for me a little. Let me see wh...”
• “What should a philosopher say, then, in the face of each of the hardships of life? "It was for this that I've been train...”
• “In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any...”
• “For what is it that everyone is seeking? To live securely, to be happy, to do everything as they wish to do, not to be h...”
• “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 ...”
• “Two principles we should always have ready - that there is nothing good or evil save in the will; and that we are not to...”
• “Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but accus...”
• “In each separate thing that you do consider the matters which come first, and those which follow after, and only then ap...”