“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”

— Epictetus

Book III, ch. 23.
Discourses

Original

Τίς εἶναι θέλεις, σαυτῷ πρῶτον εἰπέ: εἶθ' οὕτως ποίει ἃ ποιεῖς.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 5, 2025. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do." by Epictetus?

Epictetus 175

philosopher from Ancient Greece 50–138

Related quotes

“I say: "What you give, you give to yourself; what you do not give, you give up." And this is to say that whatever you do in the world, you do to yourself; and whatever you do not give to the world, you lose.”

Alejandro Jodorowsky (1929) Filmmaker and comics writer

Psychomagic: The Transformative Power of Shamanic Psychotherapy (2010)
Context: I say: "What you give, you give to yourself; what you do not give, you give up." And this is to say that whatever you do in the world, you do to yourself; and whatever you do not give to the world, you lose. If I keep my knowledge, I lose it. (...) One receives knowledge and gives it. When you give knowledge, you enrich yourself. If you do not give love, you are detracting from yourself. If I begin to help people, if I begin to heal people, I begin to heal. Do you understand? To be a therapist, you have to be a patient. The first thing to do to heal yourself is to heal others. I have one more saying: "I do not want anything for myself that I do not want for others".

“But why should you care what people will say? All you have to do is please yourself.”

Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher

“The spirit of what we do is that you do what you feel and when you feel it and not feel you have to be something you're not: you have to be honest to yourself.”

Brian Viglione (1979) American musician

June 1, 2006 - OndaRock Interview

“She says it has nothing to do with what you look like, or what you have. It has only to do with what you think of and what you do.”

Frances Hodgson Burnett A Little Princess

Variant: She says it has nothing to do with what you look like, or what you have. It has only to do with what you think of, and what you do.
Source: A Little Princess