Quotes from Epictetus
Other people's views and troubles can be contagious. Don't sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others.
- Epictetus
First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
- Epictetus
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.
- Epictetus
Practice yourself in little things and thence proceed to greater.
- Epictetus
The soul is unwillingly deprived of truth.
- Epictetus
Do not so much be ashamed of that disgrace which proceeds from men's opinion as fly from that which comes from the truth.
- Epictetus
Never in any case say I have lost such a thing, but I have returned it. Is your child dead? It is a return. Is your wife dead? It is a return. Are you deprived of your estate? Is not this also a return?
- Epictetus
What is a child? Ignorance. What is a child? Want of instruction.
- Epictetus
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 you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.
- Epictetus
He is a drunkard who takes more than three glasses, though he be not drunk.
- Epictetus
We are not troubled by things, but by the opinion which we have of things.
- Epictetus
On the occasion of every accident that befalls you ... inquire what power you have for turning it to use.
- Epictetus