Epictetus was a Greek Stoic Philosopher born in ancient Greece Hierapolis, Phrygia which is modern-day Turkey as a slave. Epictetus believed that philosophy is a way of life, not just a theoretical principle. Epictetus quotes will give you insights into his philosophical ideas. According to Epictetus “all external events are beyond our control; we should accept calmly and dispassionately whatever happens. However, individuals are responsible for their own actions, which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline.” Here are some Epictetus quotes.
He also famously believed “It is only our opinions and principles that can render us unhappy, and it is only the ignorant person who finds fault with another.”
1.“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.”
2.“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
3.“Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
4.“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will. ”
5.“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems”
6.“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”
7.“It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
8.“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
Positive quotes from Epictetus
9.“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”
10.“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
11.“He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.”
12.“Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.”
13.“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
14.“Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.”
15.“Other people’s views and troubles can be contagious. Don’t sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others.”
16.“People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.”
17.“Only the educated are free.”
18.“You are a little soul carrying around a corpse”
19.“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.”
20.“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.”
21.“Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.”
22.“First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.”
23.“No man is free who is not master of himself.”
24.“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. ”
25.“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. ”
26.“By accepting life’s limits and inevitabilities and working with them rather than fighting them, we become free.”
27.“On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.”
28. “He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.”