Epictetus

"It is not my place in society that makes me well off, but my judgments, and these I can carry with me … These alone are my own and cannot be taken away."

"Why, then, do you walk as if you had swallowed a ramrod?"

"Yet God hath not only granted these faculties, by which we may bear every event without being depressed or broken by it, but like a good prince and a true father, hath placed their exercise above restraint, compulsion, or hindrance, and wholly within our own control."

"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."

"Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle."

"O slavish man! will you not bear with your own brother, who has God for his Father, as being a son from the same stock, and of the same high descent? But if you chance to be placed in some superior station, will you presently set yourself up for a tyrant?"

"When you close your doors, and make darkness within, remember never to say that you are alone, for you are not alone; nay, God is within, and your genius is within. And what need have they of light to see what you are doing?"

"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."

"Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to an humble and grateful mind."

"Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, the part of a swan."

"Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder."

"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."

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

"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?"

"Who are those people by whom you wish to be admired? Are they not these about whom you are in the habit of saying that they are mad? What then? Do you wish to be admired by the mad?"

"If it is my interest to have a farm, it is my interest to take it away from my neighbour; if it is my interest to have a cloak, it is my interest also to steal it from a bath. This is the source of wars, seditions, tyrannies, plots."

"It is difficulties that show what men are."

"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?"

"If the room is smoky, if only moderately, I will stay; if there is too much smoke I will go. Remember this, keep a firm hold on it, the door is always open."

"In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught; but in life there are many things to draw us aside."

"Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man's task."

"For human beings, the measure of every action is the impression of the senses."

"The essence of the good is a certain kind of moral purpose, and that of the evil is a certain kind of moral purpose."

"For what is lacking now is not quibbles; nay, the books of the Stoics are full of quibbles"

"For it is not death or pain that is to be feared, but the fear of pain or death."

"For what is a child? Ignorance. What is a child? Want of instruction. For where a child has knowledge, he is no worse than we are."

"For on these matters we should not trust the multitude who say that none ought to be educated but the free, but rather to philosophers, who say that the educated alone are free."

"Show that you know this only—how you may never either fail to get what you desire or fall into what you avoid."

"Materials are indifferent, but the use which we make of them is not a matter of indifference."

"Although life is a matter of indifference, the use which you make of it is not a matter of indifference."

"Shall I show you the sinews of a philosopher? "What sinews are those?" — A will undisappointed; evils avoided; powers daily exercised, careful resolutions; unerring decisions."

"Look now, this is the starting point of philosophy: the recognition that different people have conflicting opinions, the rejection of mere opinion so that it comes to be viewed with mistrust, an investigation of opinion to determine whether it is rightly held, and the discovery of a standard of judgement, comparable to the balance that we have devised for the determining of weights, or the carpenter's rule for determining whether things are straight or crooked."

"When I see someone in anxiety, I say to myself, What can it be that this fellow wants? For if he did not want something that was outside of his control, how could he still remain in anxiety?"

"Why, then, do we wonder any longer that, although in material things we are thoroughly experienced, nevertheless in our actions we are dejected, unseemly, worthless, cowardly, unwilling to stand the strain, utter failures one and all?"

"Be bold to look towards God and say, "Use me henceforward for whatever you want; I am of one mind with you; I am yours; I refuse nothing that seems good to you; lead me where you will; wrap me in what clothes you will.""

"What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows."

"Every habit and faculty is confirmed and strengthened by the corresponding actions, that of walking by walking, that of running by running."

"If you would be a good reader, read; if a writer, write."

"Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but accustom yourself to something else."

"Be not swept off your feet by the vividness of the impression, but say, "Impression, wait for me a little. Let me see what you are and what you represent. Let me try you.""

"Show me someone who is ill and yet happy, in danger and yet happy, dying and yet happy, exiled and yet happy. Show me such a person; by the gods, how greatly I long to see a Stoic!"

"The propositions which are true and evident must of necessity be employed even by those who contradict them"

"Some of their faults people readily admit, but others not so readily."

"Who is not tempted by attractive and wide-awake children to join their sports, and crawl on all fours with them, and talk baby talk with them?"

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

"Why, what is weeping and sighing? A judgement. What is misfortune? A judgement. What are strife, disagreement, fault-finding, accusing, impiety, foolishness? They are all judgements."

"What should a philosopher say, then, in the face of each of the hardships of life? "It was for this that I've been training myself, it was for this that I was practising.""

"Two principles we should always have ready — that there is nothing good or evil save in the will; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them."

"In each separate thing that you do consider the matters which come first, and those which follow after, and only then approach the thing itself."

"Do you suppose that you can do the things you do now, and yet be a philosopher? Do you suppose that you can eat in the same fashion, drink in the same fashion, give way to anger and to irritation, just as you do now?"