Epictetus

If you think you control things that are in the control of others, you will lament. You will be disturbed and you will blame both gods and men.

Epictetus

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

Epictetus

If you wish it, you are free; if you wish it, you’ll find fault with no one, you’ll cast blame on no one, and everything that comes about will do so in accordance with your own will and that of God.

Epictetus

If you wish to live a life free from sorrow, think of what is going to happen as if it had already happened.

Epictetus

It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance.

Epictetus

It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.

Epictetus

It is the part of an uneducated person to blame others where he himself fares ill; to blame himself is the part of one whose education has begun; to blame neither another nor his own self is the part of one whose education is already complete.

Epictetus

It is the sign of a dull mind to dwell upon the cares of the body, to prolong exercise, eating and drinking and other bodily functions. These things are best done by the way; all your attention must be given to the mind.

Epictetus

It is your own convictions which compels you; that is, choice compels choice.

Epictetus

It isn’t death, pain, exile or anything else you care to mention that accounts for the way we act, only our opinion about death, pain and the rest.

Epictetus