Epictetus Quotes

Greek Stoic philosopher (c. 50–c. 138)

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Epictetus (c. 55 – c. 135 AD), born a slave, was a Greek Stoic philosopher. His words were recorded by his student Arrian in the Discourses and Enchiridion written in the early 2nd-century.

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Native Name: ΕΠΙΚΤΗΤΟΣ

Alternative Names: Epictetus of Hierapolis • Epiktetos

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

Envy is the antagonist of the fortunate.

Don't seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.

Death, for instance, is nothing terrible, but the terrible thing is the opinion that death is terrible.

Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person.

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 answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.

Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.

Do not try to seem wise to others.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to external things. Don't wish to be thought to know anything; and even if you appear to be somebody important to others, distrust yourself. For, it is difficult to both keep your faculty of choice in a state conformable to nature, and at the same time acquire external things. But while you are careful about the one, you must of necessity neglect the other

The crowd is of our own creation, you’re treading on your own toes. if you don't want to be crowded, don't attend the theater.

Small-minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise see all blame as foolishness

God has entrusted me with myself. No man is free who is not master of himself. A man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.

Sickness is an impediment to the body but not to the will unless the will wants to be impeded. Lameness is an impediment to the leg, but not to will. If you tell yourself this every time, you will find the impediment is to something else but not to yourself.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

You can always win if you only enter competitions where winning is up to you.