Famous Quotes by Epictetus

“I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?”

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

“When a youth was giving himself airs in the Theatre and saying, 'I am wise, for I have conversed with many wise men,' Epictetus replied, 'I too have conversed with many rich men, yet I am not rich!’.”

“As a man, casting off worn out garments taketh new ones, so the dweller in the body, entereth into ones that are new.”

“God save me from fools with a little philosophy—no one is more difficult to reach.”

“The philosopher's school, ye men, is a surgery: you ought not to go out of it with pleasure, but with pain. For you are not in sound health when you enter.”

“For in this Case, we are not to give Credit to the Many, who say, that none ought to be educated but the Free; but rather to the Philosophers, who say, that the Well-educated alone are free.”

“He who exercises wisdom, exercises the knowledge which is about God.”

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

“It is much better to die of hunger unhindered by grief and fear than to live affluently beset with worry, dread, suspicion and unchecked desire.”

Those who seek joy in indulgence are often empty once it fades.

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

It is not the circumstances that make you, but how you react to them.

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

Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.

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

Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them.

How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself?

No man is free who is not master of himself.

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

Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.