Epictetus

"Epictetus was born nearly 2,000 years ago in Hierapolis (present-day Pamukkale in Turkey) as a slave in a wealthy household. Later, Epictetus obtained his freedom shortly after Emperor Nero’s death and started teaching philosophy in Rome for nearly 25 years. This lasted until Emperor Domitian famously banished all philosophers in Rome. Epictetus fled to Nicopolis in Greece where he founded a philosophy school and taught there until his death.

A great starting point for Epictetus would be his Enchiridion, which translates as a ‘small manual or a handbook’ and it is exactly that.  It is the perfect introduction to Epictetus as it is packed with short Stoic maxims and principles. The next step would be Epictetus’ Discourses, which are much longer and deserve a bigger commitment."

“Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.” 

“People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.”

“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.”

“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 internalised their contents.” (The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness and Effectiveness).

“Τίς εἶναι θέλεις, σαυτῷ πρῶτον εἰπέ: εἶθ' οὕτως ποίει ἃ ποιεῖς. (First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.)”

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

“To accuse others for one's own misfortune is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.” 

“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 these alone.”

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

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

“Seek not the good in external things; seek it in yourselves.”

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

“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems” 

“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 internalised their contents.” (The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness and Effectiveness).

“First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do.”

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

“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself and in no instance bypass the discriminations of reason? You have been given the principles that you ought to endorse, and you have endorsed them. What kind of teacher, then, are you still waiting for in order to refer your self-improvement to him? You are no longer a boy, but a full-grown man. If you are careless and lazy now and keep putting things off and always deferring the day after which you will attend to yourself, you will not notice that you are making no progress, but you will live and die as someone quite ordinary.

From now on, then, resolve to live as a grown-up who is making progress, and make whatever you think best a law that you never set aside. And whenever you encounter anything that is difficult or pleasurable, or highly or lowly regarded, remember that the contest is now: you are at the Olympic Games, you cannot wait any longer, and that your progress is wrecked or preserved by a single day and a single event. That is how Socrates fulfilled himself by attending to nothing except reason in everything he encountered. And you, although you are not yet a Socrates, should live as someone who at least wants to be a Socrates.” (From Manual 51)

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

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

“He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.”

“Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.” 

“Only the educated are free."

“No man is free who is not master of himself.” 

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

“You are a little soul carrying around a corpse” 

“Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself.” 

“Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.” (The Golden Sayings of Epictetus).

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

“I laugh at those who think they can damage me. They do not know who I am, they do not know what I think, they cannot even touch the things which are really mine and with which I live.”

“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.” 

“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skilful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. ”

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

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

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

“The husbandman deals with land; physicians and trainers with the body; the wise man with his own Mind.”

“At feasts, remember that you are entertaining two guests, body and soul. What you give to the body, you presently lose; what you give to the soul, you keep forever.”

“If you seek Truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found Truth, you need not fear being defeated.”

“A man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.”

“Don’t seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.”

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

“Concern should drive us into action and not into a depression. No man is free who cannot control himself.”

“Events do not just happen, but arrive by appointment.”

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”

“Nobody will harm you, unless you consent, evil will come only when you deem it hurts.”

“All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.”

“No man is free who is not master of himself.”

“Who is your master? Anyone who has control over things upon which you’ve set your heart, or over things which you seek to avoid.”

“You are not your body and hair-style, but your capacity for choosing well. If your choices are beautiful, so too will you be.”

“We are not privy to the stories behind people’s actions, so we should be patient with others and suspend judgement of them, recognising the limits of our understanding.”

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

“Deliberate much before saying or doing anything, for you will not have the power of recalling what is said or done.”

“No great thing is created suddenly.”

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

“You should act without the approval of others.”

“Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power.”

“Fortify yourself with moderation; for this is an impregnable fortress.”

“Every habit and faculty is preserved and increased by correspondent actions.”

“Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle. Some things are within your control. And some things are not.”

“If you want to be a writer, write.”

“Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power.”

“Keep death and exile daily before thine eyes, with all else that men deem terrible, but more especially death. Then wilt thou never think a mean thought, nor covet anything beyond measure.”

“It takes more than just a good looking body. You’ve got to have the heart and soul to go with it.” 

“If you want any good, get it from within.”

“Be not diverted from your duty by any idle reflections the silly world may make upon you.” 

“Freedom is the right to live as we wish.”

'Tribal adornment V Miss Guy' by Michael James Obrien