Epictetus was a Greek philosopher who lived in the first century AD. He was known for his teachings on Stoicism, which emphasize the importance of self-control and living in harmony with others. Epictetus quotes are still relevant today, and offer valuable insights into how to live a good life.
Epictetus was born into slavery about 50 AD in Hierapolis, Phrygia. He was freed and became a Stoic philosopher. Epictetus taught that the key to happiness and success is self-control and inner peace. He believed that people should be content with what they have, and not let their emotions control them.
Epictetus’ teachings were very popular in the Western world. Many of the great philosophers, such as Marcus Aurelius and Seneca, were influenced by him. Epictetus’ teachings still offer people valuable guidance today
Epictetus was born a slave, but he eventually became one of the most influential Stoic philosophers of his time. Unlike other Stoics, Epictetus believed that philosophy should be accessible to everyone, not just the wealthy and powerful.
He taught that we should all focus on living in harmony with our own nature, and that we should not let our emotions control us. Epictetus believed that the only thing we can truly control is our own thoughts and actions, and that everything else is outside of our control. This philosophy can be difficult to follow, but it can be incredibly liberating once we understand it.
Here are some of Epictetus Quotes on living a good life.
102 Epictetus Quotes
- “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
2. “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
3. “The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
4. “Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems”
5. “Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.”
6. “No man is free who is not master of himself.”
7. “Only the educated are free.”
8. “First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.”
9. “You become what you give your attention to.”
10. “Know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance sake, but for the sake of having done right?”
11. “If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, “He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.”
12. “What concerns me is not the way things are, but the way people think things are.”
13. “If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
Epictetus Quotes on Self Control
14. “Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.”
15. “Those proficient praise no one, blame no one, and accuse no one.”
16. “Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
17. “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will.”
18. “The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. ”
19. “Demand not that things happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do, and you will go on well.”
20. “Events do not just happen, but arrive by appointment.”
21. “It is not so much what happens to you as how you think about what happens.”
22. “No great thing is created suddenly.”
23. “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
Stoicism Epictetus Quotes
24. “The anger of an ape – the threat of a flattered – these deserve equal regard.”
25. “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will. ”
26. “He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.”
27. “Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions.”
28. “To accuse others for one’s own misfortune is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one’s education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one’s education is complete.”
29. “A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope”
30. “Friend, bethink you first what it is that you would do, and then what your own nature is able to bear.”
31. “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”
32. “It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance”
33. “If you want to improve, you must be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
34. “Never say about anything, I have lost it, but only I have given it back.”
35. “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. ”
Epictetus Life Changing Quotes
36. “First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
37. “He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”
38. “Take care not to hurt the ruling faculty of your mind. If you were to guard against this in every action, you should enter upon those actions more safely.”
39. “If someone speaks badly of you, do not defend yourself against the accusations, but reply; “you obviously don’t know about my other vices, otherwise you would have mentioned these as well”
40. “Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.”
41. “There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will.”
42. “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.”
43. “From this instant on, vow to stop disappointing yourself. Separate yourself from the mob.”
44. “It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
45. “Don’t seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.”
The Art of Living Epictetus Quotes
46. “Don’t live by your own rules, but in harmony with nature”
47. “Freedom is not archived by satisfying desire, but by eliminating it.”
48. “The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.”
49. “Seek not the good in external things;seek it in yourselves.”
50. “People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.”
51. “I laugh at those who think they can damage me. They do not know who I am, they do not know what I think, they cannot even touch the things which are really mine and with which I live.”
52. “Preach not to others what they should eat, but eat as becomes you and be silent. ”
53. “If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write.”
54. “If you seek Truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found Truth, you need not fear being defeated.”
55. “If you ever happen to turn your attention to externals, for the pleasure of anyone, be assured that you have ruined your scheme of life.”
56. “When your thoughts, words, and deeds form a seamless fabric, you streamline your efforts and thus eliminate worry and dread.”
Famous Epictetus Quotes
57. “We are not disturbed by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens to us.”
58. “Freedom is secured not by the fulfilling of men’s desires, but by the removal of desire.”
59. “No matter what happens, it is within my power to turn it to my advantage.”
60. “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”
61. “Be careful whom you associate with. It is human to imitate the habits of those with whom we interact. We inadvertently adopt their interests, their opinions, their values, and their habit of interpreting events.”
62. “Men are disturbed not by the things which happen, but by the opinions about the things:”
63. “Events happen as they do. People behave as they are. Embrace what you actually get.”
64. “Do not try to seem wise to others. ”
65. “Sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy.”
66. “However he may treat me, I must deal rightly by him. This is what lies with me, what none can hinder.”
Thought-Provoking Epictetus Quotes
67. “Deliberate much before saying or doing anything, for you will not have the power of recalling what is said or done.”
68. “Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.”
69. “What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance.”
70. “When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.”
71. “Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.”
72. “No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig. If you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.”
73. “Don’t put your purpose in one place and expect to see progress made somewhere else.”
74. “No one is ever unhappy because of someone else.”
75. “Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.”
Insightful and Mind changing Epictetus Quotes
76. “You are but an appearance, and not absolutely the thing you appear to be.”
77. “Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power.”
78. “Difficulty shows what men are. Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man. Why? So that you may become an Olympic conqueror; but it is not accomplished without sweat.”
79. “The flourishing life cannot be achieved until we moderate our desires and see how superficial and fleeting they are.”
80. “We suffer not from the events in our lives but from our judgement about them.”
81. “When you want to hear a philosopher, do not say, ‘You say nothing to me’; only show yourself worthy or fit to hear, and then you will see how you will move the speaker.”
82. “If you seek Truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found Truth, you need not fear being defeated.”
83. “Nothing is in reality either pleasant or unpleasant by nature but all things become so through habit.”
84. “If you wish to be good, first believe that you are bad.”
85. “Wherever a man is against his will, that to him is a prison.”
86. “There is no shame in making an honest effort.”
The Best Epictetus Quotes
87. “Have this thought ever present with thee, when thou losest any outward thing, what thou gainest in its stead; and if this be the more precious, say not, I have suffered loss.”
88. “No person is free who is not master of himself.”
89. “Any person capable of angering you becomes your master.”
90. “If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it.”
91. “God has entrusted me with myself. No man is free who is not master of himself. A man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.”
92. “The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. ”
93. “When we blather about trivial things, we ourselves become trivial, for our attention gets taken up with trivialities. You become what you give your attention to.”
94. “The appearance of things to the mind is the standard of every action to man.”
95. “Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words.”
96. “Small-minded people blame others. Average people blame themselves. The wise see all blame as foolishness”
Epictetus Stoic Quotes
97. “Don’t just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents.”
98. “Attach yourself to what is spiritually superior, regardless of what other people think or do. Hold to your true aspirations no matter what is going on around you.”
99. “Don’t seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.”
100. “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.”
101. “I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?”
102. “Remember, it is not enough to be hit or insulted to be harmed, you must believe that you are being harmed. If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation. Which is why it is essential that we not respond impulsively to impressions; take a moment before reacting, and you will find it easier to maintain control.”