Top 500 Epictetus Quotes (2024 Update)
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301. “For even sheep do not vomit up their grass and show to the shepherds how much they have eaten; but when they have internally digested the pasture, they produce externally wool and milk. Do you also show not your theorems to the uninstructed, but show the acts which come from their digestion.”

— Epictetus

302. “The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will.”

— Epictetus

303. “If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.”

— Epictetus

304. “The universe is but one great city, full of beloved ones, divine and human, by nature endeared to each other.”

— Epictetus

305. “When then any man assents to that which is false, be assured that he did not intend to assent to it as false, for every soul is unwillingly deprived of the truth, as Plato says; but the falsity seemed to him to be true.”

— Epictetus

306. “What are we to do, then? To make the best of what lies within our power, and deal with everything else as it comes. ‘How does it come, then?’ As God wills.”

— Epictetus

307. “If you choose, you are free; if you choose, you need blame no man – accuse no man. All things will be at once according to your mind and according to the Mind of God.”

— Epictetus

308. “Faced with pain, you will discover the power of endurance. If you are insulted, you will discover patience. In time, you will grow to be confident that there is not a single impression that you will not have the moral means to tolerate.”

— Epictetus

309. “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?”

— Epictetus

310. “To know that you do not know and to be willing to admit that you do not know without sheepishly apologizing is real strength and sets the stage for learning and progress in any endeavor.”

— Epictetus

311. “The materials are indifferent, but the use we make of them is not a matter of indifference.”

— Epictetus

312. “I am not eternity, but a man; a part of the whole, as an hour is of the day.”

— Epictetus

313. “If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.”

— Epictetus

314. “If you do not wish to be prone to anger, do not feed the habit; give it nothing which may tend to its increase.”

— Epictetus

315. “Be not diverted from your duty by any idle reflections the silly world may make upon you, for their censures are not in your power and should not be at all your concerns.”

— Epictetus

316. “Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.”

— Epictetus

317. “Conduct yourself in all matters, grand and public or small and domestic, in accordance with the laws of nature. Harmonizing your will with nature should be your utmost ideal.”

— Epictetus

318. “Freedom and slavery, the one is the name of virtue, and the other of vice, and both are acts of the will.”

— Epictetus

319. “The philosopher’s lecture room is a ‘hospital’: you ought not to walk out of it in a state of pleasure, but in pain; for you are not in good condition when you arrive.”

— Epictetus

320. “Think of God more often than thou breathest.”

— Epictetus

321. “What is a good person? One who achieves tranquillity by having formed the habit of asking on every occasion, “what is the right thing to do now?””

— Epictetus

322. “If you want to make progress, put up with being perceived as ignorant or naive in worldly matters, don’t aspire to a reputation for sagacity. If you do impress others as somebody, don’t altogether believe it. You have to realize, it isn’t easy to keep your will in agreement with nature, as well as externals. Caring about the one inevitably means you are going to shortchange the other.”

— Epictetus

323. “If your heart is quite set upon a crown, make and put on one of roses, for it will make the prettier appearance.”

— Epictetus

324. “Whatever moral rules you have deliberately proposed to yourself. abide by them as they were laws, and as if you would be guilty of impiety by violating any of them. Don’t regard what anyone says of you, for this, after all, is no concern of yours.”

— Epictetus

325. “The soul that companies with virtue is like an ever-flowing source. It is a pure, clear, and wholesome draught, sweet, rich and generous of its store, that injures not, neither destroys.”

— Epictetus

326. “It is my business, to manage carefully and dexterously whatever happens.”

— Epictetus

327. “Let no man think that he is loved by any who loveth none.”

— Epictetus

328. “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

329. “If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it.”

— Epictetus

330. “In order to please others, we loose our hold on our life’s purpose.”

— Epictetus

331. “Focus not on what he or she does, but on keeping to your higher purpose. Your own purpose should seek harmony with nature itself. For this is the true road to freedom.”

— Epictetus

332. “The appearance of things to the mind is the standard of every action to man.”

— Epictetus

333. “Adopt new habits yourself: consolidate your principles by putting them into practice.”

— Epictetus

334. “Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.”

— Epictetus

335. “In prosperity it is very easy to find a friend; but in adversity it is the most difficult of all things.”

— Epictetus

336. “Fortune is an evil chain to the body, and vice to the soul.”

— Epictetus

337. “Prefer enduring satisfaction to immediate gratification.”

— Epictetus

338. “Whatever your mission, stick by it as if it were a law and you would be committing sacrilege to betray it. Pay no attention to whatever people might say; this no longer should influence you.”

— Epictetus

339. “So don’t make a show of your philosophical learning to the uninitiated, show them by your actions what you have absorbed.”

— Epictetus

340. “Covetousness like jealousy, when it has taken root, never leaves a person, but with their life. Cowardice is the dread of what will happen.”

— Epictetus

341. “No living being is held by anything so strongly as by its own needs. Whatever therefore appears a hindrance to these, be it brother, or father, or child, or mistress, or friend, is hated, abhorred, execrated.”

— Epictetus

342. “Reading should serve the goal of attaining peace; if it doesn’t make you peaceful, what good is it?”

— Epictetus

343. “It is a universal law – have no illusion – that every creature alive is attached to nothing so much as to its own self-interest.”

— Epictetus

344. “Against specious appearances we must set clear convictions, bright and ready for use. When death appears as an evil, we ought immediately to remember that evils are things to be avoided, but death is inevitable.”

— Epictetus

345. “The soul is unwillingly deprived of truth.”

— Epictetus

346. “Do nothing in a depressed mood, nor as one afflicted, nor as thinking that you are in misery, for no one compels you to that.”

— Epictetus

347. “To adorn our characters by the charm of an amiable nature shows at once a lover of beauty and a lover of man.”

— Epictetus

348. “When one maintains his proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals.”

— Epictetus

349. “Watch yourself as you go about your daily business and later reflect on what you saw, trying to identify the sources of distress in your life and thinking about how to avoid that distress.”

— Epictetus

350. “Is it not the same distance to God everywhere?”

— Epictetus