Epictetus Quotes

Your aim should be to view the world as an integrated whole, to faithfully incline your whole being toward the highest good, and to adopt the will of nature as your own.

None of those who have been raised to a loftier height by riches and honours is really great.

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

Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about theorems, but act conformably to them. Thus, at an entertainment, don't talk how persons ought to eat, but eat as you ought. For remember that in this manner Socrates also universally avoided all ostentation. And when persons came to him and desired to be recommended by him to philosophers, he took and recommended them, so well did he bear being overlooked. So that if ever any talk should happen among the unlearned concerning philosophic theorems, be you, for the most part, silent. For there is great danger in immediately throwing out what you have not digested. And, if anyone tells you that you know nothing, and you are not nettled at it, then you may be sure that you have begun your business. For sheep don't throw up the grass to show the shepherds how much they have eaten; but, inwardly digesting their food, they outwardly produce wool and milk. Thus, therefore, do you likewise not show theorems to the unlearned, but the actions produced by them after they have been digested. (46).

Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not. It is only after you have faced up to this fundamental rule and learned to distinguish between what you can and can’t control that inner tranquility and outer effectiveness become possible.

Whoever then would be free, let him wish for nothing, let him decline nothing, which depends on others; else he must necessarily be a slave.

Follow your principles as though they were laws. Do not worry if others criticize or laugh at you, for their opinions are not your concern.

Throw him in jail.’ What jail? The one he is in already, since he is there against his will; and if he is there against his will then he is imprisoned.

grammar will tell you how to write; but whether to write or not, grammar will not tell.

لا تكن كالأطفال آنًا فيلسوفًا، ثُمَّ جابيًا، ثُمَّ خطيبًا، ثُمَّ موظَّفًا لقيصر؛ فهذه الأشياء لا تَتَّسِق. إنما عليك أن تكون شخصًا واحدًا، جَيِّدًا أو رديئًا. إما أن تُنمِّي ملَكَتك العقلية، وإما أن تُنمِّي أشياءك الخارجية. إمَّا أن تنصرف إلى الأشياء الداخلية وإما إلى الأشياء الخارجية؛ أي إنك إمَّا أن تكون أحدَ الفلاسفة، وإمَّا أن تكون أحدَ السُّوقة.

If you win the adoration of others by pretending to be someone you’re not, you may gain celebrity or high office — but you will lose out on the fulfillment of a life best-suited to your attributes and abilities.

If it should ever happen to you to be turned to externals in order to please some person, you must know that you have lost your purpose in life.

The gods do not exists, and even if they exist they do not trouble themselves about people, and we have nothing in common with them. The piety and devotion to the gods that the majority of people invoke is a lie devised by swindlers and con men and, if you can believe it, by legislators, to keep criminals in line by putting the fear of God into them.

If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write.

the Oracle at Delphi — once threw a man out of the temple for abandoning his friend.