Do not seek to bring things to pass in accordance with your wishes, but wish for them as they are, and you will find them.
— Epictetus
If thy brother wrongs thee, remember not so much his wrong-doing, but more than ever that he is thy brother.
We tell lies, yet it is easy to show that lying is immoral.
If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.
If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please.
The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.
It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.
If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
Freedom is the right to live as we wish.
No greater thing 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.
First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
The two powers which in my opinion constitute a wise man are those of bearing and forbearing.
Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.
To accuse others for one's own misfortunes 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.
It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death.
Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.
When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.
If you seek truth you will not seek victory by dishonorable means, and if you find truth you will become invincible.
Control thy passions lest they take vengence on thee.
Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.
You may be always victorious if you will never enter into any contest where the issue does not wholly depend upon yourself.
Never in any case say I have lost such a thing, but I have returned it. Is your child dead? It is a return. Is your wife dead? It is a return. Are you deprived of your estate? Is not this also a return?
If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.
Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.
All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.
There is nothing good or evil save in the will.
It is the nature of the wise to resist pleasures, but the foolish to be a slave to them.
Neither should a ship rely on one small anchor, nor should life rest on a single hope.
Whenever you are angry, be assured that it is not only a present evil, but that you have increased a habit.
The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.
Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.
No great thing is created suddenly.
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.
Do not laugh much or often or unrestrainedly.
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.
We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope.
Silence is safer than speech.
It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.
Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.
The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.
You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.
Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
One that desires to excel should endeavor in those things that are in themselves most excellent.
Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.
Practice yourself, for heaven's sake in little things, and then proceed to greater.
Not every difficult and dangerous thing is suitable for training, but only that which is conducive to success in achieving the object of our effort.
If you wish to be a writer, write.
He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
