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No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.
Epictetus
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Epictetus
Philosopher
Epictetus of Hierapolis
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More quotes by Epictetus
When we name things correctly, we comprehend them correctly, without adding information or judgements that aren't there. Does someone bathe quickly? Don't say be bathes poorly, but quickly. Name the situation as it is, don't filter it through your judgments. Give your assent only to that which is actually true.
Epictetus
Difficulty shows what men are. Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man. Why? So that you may become an Olympic conqueror but it is not accomplished without sweat.
Epictetus
It is better to die of hunger having lived without grief and fear, than to live with a troubled spirit, amid abundance
Epictetus
Why, do you not know, then, that the origin of all human evils, and of baseness, and cowardice, is not death, but rather the fear of death?
Epictetus
Our duties naturally emerge form such fundamental relations as our families, neighborhoods, workplaces, our state or nation. Make it your regular habit to consider your roles-parent, child, neighbor, citizen, leader-and the natural duties that arise from them. Once you know who you are and to whom you are linked, you will know what to do.
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You have been given your own work to do. Get to it right now, do your best at it, and don't be concerned with who is watching you. Create your own merit.
Epictetus
What is it to be a philosopher? Is it not to be prepared against events?
Epictetus
Opportunity beckons more surely when misfortune comes upon a person than it ever does when that person is riding the crest of a wave of success. It sharpens a person's wits, if that person will let it, enabling him or her to see more clearly and evaluate situations with a more knowledgeable judgment.
Epictetus
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
Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to a humble and grateful mind.
Epictetus
People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.
Epictetus
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
A half-hearted spirit has no power. Tentative efforts lead to tentative outcomes. Average people enter into their endeavors headlong and without care.
Epictetus
Have the wisdom to know what cannot be changed, and the strength to change what can.
Epictetus
It is a mark of a mean capacity to spend much time on the things which concern the body, such as much exercise, much eating, much drinking, much easing of the body, much copulation. But these things should be done as subordinate things: and let all your care be directed to the mind.
Epictetus
Other people's views and troubles can be contagious. Don't sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others.
Epictetus
Bear in mind that you should conduct yourself in life as at a feast.
Epictetus
There is nothing good or evil save in the will.
Epictetus
Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be or they neither are, nor appear to be or they are, and do not appear to be or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man's task.
Epictetus
Against specious appearances we must set clear convictions, bright and ready for use. When death appears as an evil, we ought immediately to remember that evils are things to be avoided, but death is inevitable.
Epictetus