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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!’.

Epictetus

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Epictetus
Philosopher
Epictetus of Hierapolis
Giving
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Men
Theatre
Air
Youth
Saying
Wise
Epictetus
Rich
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More quotes by Epictetus

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When our friends are present we ought to treat them well and when they are absent, to speak of them well.
Epictetus
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Although we can't control which roles are assigned to us, it must be our business to act our given role as best we possibly can and to refrain from complaining about it. Where ever you find yourself and in whatever circumstances, give an impeccable performance.
Epictetus
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Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths.
Epictetus
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It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance
Epictetus
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If we are not stupid or insincere when we say that the good or ill of man lies within his own will, and that all beside is nothing to us, why are we still troubled?
Epictetus
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It were no slight attainment could we merely fulfil what the nature of man implies.
Epictetus
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It’s time to stop being vague. If you wish to be an extraordinary person, if you wish to be wise, then you should explicitly identify the kind of person you aspire to become.
Epictetus
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Men are not worried by things, but by their ideas about things. When we meet with difficulties, become anxious or troubled, let us not blame others, but rather ourselves. That is: our ideas about things.
Epictetus
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It has been ordained that there be summer and winter, abundance and dearth, virtue and vice, and all such opposites for the harmony of the whole, and (Zeus) has given each of us a body, property, and companions.
Epictetus
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What ought one to say then as each hardship comes? I was practicing for this, I was training for this.
Epictetus
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You bear God within you, poor wretch, and know it not.
Epictetus
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Neither the victories of the Olympic Games nor those achieved in battles make the man happy. The only victories that make him happy are those achieved against himself. Temptations and tests are combats. You have beaten one, two, many times still fight. If you defeat at last you will be happy your entire life, as if you have always defeated.
Epictetus
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All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.
Epictetus
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Contentment, as it is a short road and pleasant, has great delight and little trouble.
Epictetus
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Don't be prideful with any excellence that is not your own
Epictetus
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You ought to choose both physician and friend, not the most agreeable, but the most useful.
Epictetus
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Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about theorems, but act conformably to them. Thus, at an entertainment, don't talk how persons ought to eat, but eat as you ought. For remember that in this manner Socrates also universally avoided all ostentation.
Epictetus
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Things true and evident must of necessity be recognized by those who would contradict them.
Epictetus
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Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.
Epictetus
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Renew every day your conversation with God: Do this even in preference to eating. Think more often of God than you breathe.
Epictetus