To Epictetus, all external events are determined by fate, and are thus beyond our control, but we can accept whatever happens calmly and dispassionately. Individuals, however, are responsible for thei...
It is unrealistc to expect people to see you as you see yourself.
If you wish your house to be well managed, imitate the Spartan Lycurgus. For as he did not fence his city with walls, but fortified the inhabitants by virtue and preserved the city always free;35 so d...
If they are wise, do not quarrel with them; if they are fools, ignore them.
Freedom is not archived by satisfying desire, but by eliminating it.
Fortify yourself with contentment for this is an impregnable fortress.
For I am not Eternity, but a human being—a part of the whole, as an hour is part of the day. I must come like the hour, and like the hour must pass!
Circumstances do not rise to meet our expectations. Events happen as they do. People behave as they are. Embrace what you actually get.
Adopt new habits yourself: consolidate your principles by putting them into practice.
Above all, remember that the door stands open. Be not more fearful than children; but as they, when they weary of the game, cry, I will play no more, even so, when thou art in the like case, cry, I wi...
Men are not influenced by things but by their thoughts about things.
It is much better to die of hunger unhindered by grief and fear than to live affluently beset with worry, dread, suspicion and unchecked desire.
This is your business—to act well the given part, but to choose it belongs to another.
Your happiness depends on three things, all of which are within your power: your will, your ideas concerning the events in which you are involved, and the use you make of your ideas.
You will never have to experience defeat if you avoid contests whose outcome is outside your control.
You will do the greatest services to the state, if you shall raise not the roofs of the houses, but the souls of the citizens: for it is better that great souls should dwell in small houses than for m...
You ought to realize, you take up very little space in the world as a whole—your body, that is; in reason, however, you yield to no one, not even to the gods, because reason is not measured in size bu...
You journey to Olympia to see the work of Phidias; and each of you holds it a misfortune not to have beheld these things before you die. Whereas when there is no need even to take a journey, but you a...
Why do you want to read anyway – for the sake of amusement or mere erudition? Those are poor, fatuous pretexts. Reading should serve the goal of attaining peace; if it doesn’t make you peaceful, what...
Whenever anyone criticizes or wrongs you, remember that they are only doing or saying what they think is right. They cannot be guided by your views, only their own; so if their views are wrong, they a...