Quotes Epictetus - page 5
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What is it that every man seeks? To be secure, to be happy, to do what he pleases without restraint and without compulsion.
Freedom and happiness are won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.
Freedom and happiness come from understanding - and working with - our limits. Begin at once a program of self-mastery. Stick with your purpose. Do not seek external approval. Do not worry about anything outside of your control. The only things you command are your thoughts and actions. We choose our response. Stop aspiring to be anyone other than your own best self: for that does fall within your control.
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If what the philosophers say be true, that all men's actions proceed from one source; that as they assent from a persuasion that a thing is so, and dissent from a persuasion that it is not, and suspend their judgment from a persuasion that it is uncertain, so likewise they seek a thing from a persuasion that it is for their advantage.
Every habit and faculty is preserved and increased by correspondent actions, as the habit of walking, by walking; of running, by running.
We should not have either a blunt knife or a freedom of speech which is ill-managed.
Truth is a thing immortal and perpetual, and it gives to us a beauty that fades not away in time, nor does it take away the freedom of speech which proceeds from justice; but it gives to us the knowledge of what is just and lawful, separating from them the unjust and refuting them.
Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions.
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
In prosperity it is very easy to find a friend; but in adversity it is the most difficult of all things.
Give yourself fully to your endeavors. Decide to construct your character through excellent actions and determine to pay the price of a worthy goal. The trials you encounter will introduce you to your strengths.
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 action, but our inward opinions and principles.
Watch yourself as you go about your daily business and later reflect on what you saw, trying to identify the sources of distress in your life and thinking about how to avoid that distress.
Survey and test a prospective action before undertaking it. Before you proceed, step back and look at the big picture, lest you act rashly on raw impulse.
Don't be too quick to draw conclusions from what happens to you; simply let it happen.
The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.
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We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
