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Epictetus: 350 quotes94 likes

“Upon all occasions we ought to have these maxims ready at hand:
Conduct me, Jove, and you, O Destiny,
Wherever your decrees have fixed my station. ~ Cleanthes.

I follow cheerfully; and, did I not,
Wicked and wretched, I must follow still
Whoever yields properly to Fate, is deemed
Wise among men, and knows the laws of heaven. ~ Euripides, Frag. 965.”

Epictetus

The Enchiridion (c. 135)

“If we are not stupid or insincere when we say that the good or ill of man lies within his own will, and that all beside is nothing to us, why are we still troubled?”

Epictetus

Book I, ch. 25.
Discourses

“In general, any methods of discipline applied to the body which tend to modify its desires or repulsions, are good—for ascetic ends. But if done for display, they betray at once a man who keeps an eye on outward show; who has an ulterior purpose, and is looking for spectators to shout, "Oh what a great man!" This is why Apollonius so well said: "If you are bent upon a little private discipline, wait till you are choking with heat one day—then take a mouthful of cold water, and spit it out again, and tell no man!"”

Epictetus

100
Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“Think you to be a philosopher while acting as you do? think you to go on thus eating, thus drinking, giving way in like manner to [your own] wrath and to displeasure? Nay you must watch, you must labor; overcome certain desires; quit your familiar friends, submit to be despised by your slave, to be held in derision by them that meet you, to take the lower place in all things, in office, in positions of authority, in courts of law. Weight these things fully, and then, if you will, lay to your hand; if as the price of these things you would gain Freedom, Tranquility, and passionless Serenity.”

Epictetus

104
Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“The anger of an ape—the threat of a flatterer—these deserve equal regard.”

Epictetus

Fragment xiii.
Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Fragments

“Dare to look up to God and say, "Make use of me for the future as Thou wilt. I am of the same mind; I am one with Thee. I refuse nothing which seems good to Thee. Lead me whither Thou wilt. Clothe me in whatever dress Thou wilt."”

Epictetus

That we do not study to make Use of the established Principles concerning Good and Evil, Chap. xvi.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“Do not give sentence in another tribunal till you have been yourself judged in the tribunal of Justice.”

Epictetus

Fragment vii.
Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Fragments

“It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?”

Epictetus

Book I, ch. 20.
Discourses

“Every art and every faculty contemplates certain things as its principal objects.”

Epictetus

Book I, ch. 20.
Discourses

“Exceed due measure, and the most delightful things become the least delightful.”

Epictetus

Fragment xii.
Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Fragments

“A man should also be prepared to be sufficient unto himself—to dwell within himself alone, even as God dwells with Himself alone… So should we also be able to converse with ourselves, to need none else beside, to sigh for no distraction, to bend our thoughts upon the Divine Administration, and how we stand related to all else; to observe how human accidents touched us of old, and how they touch us now; what things they are that still have power to hurt us, and how they may be cured and removed; to perfect what needs perfecting as Reason would direct.”

Epictetus

98
Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“Practice yourself, for heaven's sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.”

Epictetus

Book I, ch. 18.
Discourses

“Fortify thyself with contentment: that is an impregnable stronghold.”

Epictetus

Fragment xvii.
Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Fragments

“Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.”

Epictetus

5
The Enchiridion (c. 135)
Source: Enchiridion 5 http://classics.mit.edu/Epictetus/epicench.html

“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.”

Epictetus

Book I, ch. 15.
Discourses

“To you, all you have seems small: to me, all I have seems great. Your desire is insatiable, mine is satisfied. See children thrusting their hands into a narrow-necked jar, and striving to pull out the nuts and figs it contains: if they fill the hand, they cannot pull it out again, and then they fall to tears.—'Let go a few of them, and then you can draw out the rest!'—You, too, let your desire go! covet not many things, and you will obtain.”

Epictetus

95
Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.”

Epictetus

Fragment vi.
Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Fragments

“When one maintains his proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals. What would you have, O man?”

Epictetus

Book I, ch. 21.
Discourses

“Remember that it is not he who gives abuse or blows who affronts, but the view we take of these things as insulting. When, therefore, any one provokes you, be assured that it is your own opinion which provokes you.”

Epictetus

20
The Enchiridion (c. 135)

“A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope.”

Epictetus

Fragment xvi.
Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Fragments