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Try not to react merely in the moment. Pull back from the situation. Take a wider view. Compose yourself.

Epictetus

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Epictetus
Philosopher
Epictetus of Hierapolis
View
Life
Views
Situation
Moment
Compose
Moments
Wider
React
Back
Pull
Take
Merely
Trying

More quotes by Epictetus

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You become what you give your attention to...If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest.
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If you seek Truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means and when you have found Truth, you need not fear being defeated.
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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?
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The pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us greatest delight.
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Things themselves don't hurt or hinder us. Things simply are what they are. How we view these things is another matter.People think what they will think it is of no concern to us.
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Shall I show you the sinews of a philosopher? What sinews are those? - A will undisappointed evils avoided powers daily exercised careful resolutions unerring decisions.
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O slavish man! will you not bear with your own brother, who has God for his Father, as being a son from the same stock, and of the same high descent? But if you chance to be placed in some superior station, will you presently set yourself up for a tyrant?
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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.
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Wherever I go it will be well with me, for it was well with me here, not on account of the place, but of my judgments which I shall carry away with me, for no one can deprive me of these on the contrary, they alone are my property, and cannot be taken away, and to possess them suffices me wherever I am or whatever I do.
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In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.
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What is death? A scary mask. Take it off-see, it doesn't bite.
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If I can acquire money and also keep myself modest and faithful and magnanimous, point out the way, and I will acquire it.
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Remember that you are but an actor, acting whatever part the Master has ordained. It may be short or it may be long. If he wishes you to represent a poor man, do so heartily if a cripple, or a magistrate, or a private man, in each case act your part with honor.
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Law intends indeed to do service to human life, but it is not able when men do not choose to accept her services for it is only in those who are obedient to her that she displays her special virtue.
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When a man is proud because he can understand and explain the writings of Chrysippus, say to yourself, 'if Chrysippus had not written obscurely, this man would have had nothing to be proud of.'
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He is a drunkard who takes more than three glasses though he be not drunk.
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Happiness is an equivalent for all troublesome things.
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There is only one thing for which God has sent me into the world, and that is to develop every kind of virtue or strength, and there is nothing in all the world that I cannot use for this purpose.
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A soul that makes virtue its companion is like an over-flowing well, for it is clean and pellucid, sweet and wholesome, open to all, rich, blameless and indestructible.
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If you would improve, submit to be considered wihout sense and foolish with respect to externals. Wish to be considered to know nothing and if you shall seem to someone to be a person of importance, distrust yourself.
Epictetus