Whoever chafes at the conditions dealt by fate is unskilled in the art of life; whoever bears with them nobly and makes wise use of the results is a man who deserves to be considered good.
~ Epictetus
True peace is characterized by nothing so much as steadiness and imperturbability.
~ Epictetus
My mind represents for me my medium – like wood to a carpenter, or leather to a shoemaker.
~ Epictetus
Behold the ruin of a noble soul. She did not know, in effect, that obtaining our desire is not done by looking outside ourselves for help, or by changing or rearranging circumstance.
~ Epictetus
Poor fellow, you’re not satisfied with what you see every day? Can you hope for any better vision than the sun, the moon, the stars, all the land and sea?
~ Epictetus
Where will I find good and bad? In me, in my choices. Don’t ever speak of ‘good’ or ‘bad’, ‘advantage’ or ‘harm’, and so on, of anything that is not your responsibility.
~ Epictetus
And even if someone praises you, restrain yourself, be content to look like a nobody or know-nothing.
~ Epictetus
Man is an animal made for abstract thought.
~ Epictetus
And it is impossible to assent to anything that does not appear to be fact. Why? It is the mind’s nature; it will assent to truth, reject what is false, and suspend judgement in doubtful cases.
~ Epictetus
You ought to realize, you take up very little space in the world as a whole – your body, that is; in reason, however, you yield to no one, not even to the gods, because reason is not measured in scale but sense.
~ Epictetus
