Epictetus: Quotes about men

Epictetus was philosopher from Ancient Greece. Explore interesting quotes on men.

Epictetus: 350 quotes94 likes

“Keep death and exile daily before thine eyes, with all else that men deem terrible, but more especially Death. Then wilt thou never think a mean thought, nor covet anything beyond measure.”

161
Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“One who knows not who he is and to what end he was born; what kind of world this is and with whom he is associated therein; one who cannot distinguish Good and Evil, Beauty and Foulness,… Truth and Falsehood, will never follow Reason in shaping his desires and impulses and repulsions, nor yet in assent, denial, or suspension of judgment; but will in one word go about deaf and blind, thinking himself to be somewhat, when he is in truth of no account. Is there anything new in all this? Is not this ignorance the cause of all the mistakes and mischances of men since the human race began?…”

81
Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“Try to enjoy the great festival of life with other men.”

3
Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“It is difficulties that show what men are.”

Book I, ch. 24.
Discourses

“If a Cynic is an object of pity, he seems a mere beggar; all turn away, all are offended at him. Nor should be be slovenly of look, so as not to scare men from him in this way either; on the contrary, his very roughness should be clean and attractive.”

118
Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“But in the present condition of things, which resembles an Army in battle array, ought not the Cynic to be free from all distraction and given wholly to the service of God, so that he can go in and out among men, neither fettered by the duties nor entangled by the relations of common life? For if he transgresses them, he will forfeit the character of a good man and true; whereas if he observe them, there is an end of him as the Messenger, the Spy, the Herald of the Gods!”

116
Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“There are some things which men confess with ease, and others with difficulty.”

Of Inconsistency, Chap. xxi.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“If what philosophers say of the kinship of God and Men be true, what remains for men to do but as Socrates did: never, when asked one’s country, to answer, 'I am an Athenian or a Corinthian,' but 'I am a citizen of the world.”

15
Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“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.”

Book I, ch. 18.
Discourses

“Let not another's disobedience to Nature become an ill to you; for you were not born to be depressed and unhappy with others, but to be happy with them. And if any is unhappy, remember that he is so for himself; for God made all men to enjoy felicity and peace.”

That we ought not to be affected by Things not in our own Power, Chap. xxiv.
Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919)

“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.”

The Enchiridion (c. 135)

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

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

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

Fragment vi.
Golden Sayings of Epictetus, Fragments

“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.”