Epictetus Quotes

There is one road to peace and happiness (keep the thought near by morning, noon and night): renunciation of externals;

When you do anything from a clear judgment that it ought to be done, never shrink from being seen to do it, even though the world should misunderstand it; for if you are not acting rightly, shun the action itself; if you are, why fear those who wrongly censure you?

Do not seek for things to happen the way you want them to; rather, wish that what happens happen the way it happens: then you will be happy.

To admonish is better than to reproach for admonition is mild and friendly, but reproach is harsh and insulting; and admonition corrects those who are doing wrong, but reproach only convicts them.

Οὗτοι οἱ λόγοι ἀσύνακτοι «ἐγώ σου πλουσιώτερός εἰμι, ἐγώ σου ἄρα κρείσσων»· «ἐγώ σου λογιώτερος, ἐγώ σου ἄρα κρείσσων». ἐκεῖνοι δὲ μᾶλλον συνακτικοί «ἐγώ σου πλουσιώτερός εἰμι, ἡ ἐμὴ ἄρα κτῆσις τῆς σῆς κρείσσων»· «ἐγώ σου λογιώτερος, ἡ ἐμὴ ἄρα λέξις τῆς σῆς κρείσσων». σὺ δὲ οὔτε κτῆσις εἶ οὔτε λέξις.

Enchiridion 44, the handbook of Epictetus's teaching compiled by his student Arrian.

No man is master of another man's will, but in the will alone is the good and the bad.

From Epictetus's discourse On Attention (Discourses IV.12), recorded by his student Arrian.

Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to the will.

You would fain be victor at the Olympic Games, you say. Yes, but weigh the conditions, weigh the consequences; then and then only, lay to your hand-if it be for your profit. You must live by rule, submit to diet, abstain from dainty meats, exercise your body perforce at stated hours, in heat or in cold; drink no cold water, nor, it may be, wine. In a word, you must surrender yourself wholly to your trainer, as though to a physician.

What’s odd in asserting that what’s bad for anything is what runs contrary to its nature? You say it for everything else, why make humanity the sole exception?

Circumstances do not rise to meet our expectations. Events happen as they do. People behave as they are. Embrace what you actually get.

τίς δὲ δοῦναι δύναται ἑτέρῳ, ἃ μὴ ἔχει αὐτός;

Enchiridion 24, the handbook of Epictetus's teaching compiled by his student Arrian; answering the objection that a philosopher leaves his friends unassisted.

He did not say, 'Define me envy', and then, when the man defined it, 'You define it ill, for the terms of the definition do not correspond to the subject defined.' Such phrases are technical and therefore tiresome to the lay mind, and hard to follow, yet you and I cannot get away from them. We are quite unable to rouse the ordinary man's attention in a way which will enable him to follow his own impressions and so arrive at admitting or rejecting this or that. And therefore those of us who are at all cautious naturally give the subject up, when we become aware of this incapacity; while the mass of men, who venture at random into this sort of enterprise, muddle others and get muddled themselves, and end by abusing their opponents and getting abused in return, and so leave the field. But the first quality of all in Socrates, and the most characteristic, was that he never lost his temper in argument, never uttered anything abusive, never anything insolent, but bore with abuse from others and quieted strife.

But they have produced such wonderful fruit in a human mind, as part of their plan to bestow on humanity the true secret of happiness.

Consider how we apply the idea of freedom to animals. [25] There are tame lions that people cage, raise, feed and take with them wherever they go. Yet who will call such a lion free? The easier its life, the more slavish it is. No lion endowed with reason and discretion would choose to be one of these pet specimens.

If you decide to do something, don't shrink from being seen doing it, even if the majority of people disapprove. If you're wrong to do it, then you should shrink from doing it altogether; but if you're right, then why worry how people will judge you?