Epictetus Quotes: Pearls of Wisdom for a Fulfilling Life

We suffer not from the events in our lives, but from our judgment about them.

Don’t demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will be happy.

Nothing 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.

He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.

If someone succeeds in provoking you, realize that your mind is complicit in the provocation.

Other people’s views and troubles can be contagious. Don’t sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others.

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.

Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.

When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.

Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not.

No man is free who is not a master of himself.

The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

God has entrusted me with myself.

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

What upsets people is not things themselves but their judgments about the things.

It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.

It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death.

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

The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.

Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.

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 only these.

It is not the things themselves that disturb people, but the judgments that they form about them.

The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.

The key to happiness is not to control or change the external circumstances, but to control and change your own internal attitude and response.

The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.

It is impossible for a man to begin to learn that which he thinks he knows.

Difficulties show men what they are. In case of any difficulty remember that God has pitted you against a rough antagonist that you may be a conqueror, and this cannot be without toil.

There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.

If you want to be a writer, write.

We are responsible for some things, while there are others for which we cannot be held responsible.

Seek not for events to happen as you wish but rather wish for events to happen as they do and your life will go smoothly.

We are not disturbed by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens to us.

It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.

First tell yourself what kind of person you want to be, then do what you have to do.

Circumstances don’t make the man; they only reveal him to himself.

No great thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.

Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his own thinking about real problems.

You are not your body and hair style, but your capacity for choosing well.

Don’t demand or desire that events happen as you wish them to. Instead, wish that they happen as they do happen, and your life will go on well.

Remember that your ruling principle is the adversary. Of all the things that make for happiness, the chief one is possession of a steady aim.

Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.

Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.

I cannot escape death, but at least I can escape the fear of it.

If you would cure anger, do not feed it. Say to yourself: ‘I used to be angry every day; then every other day; now only every third or fourth day.’ When you reach thirty days offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods.

Your time is limited, don’t waste it living someone else’s life.

Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are. When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.