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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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Epictetus
Philosopher
Epictetus of Hierapolis
Rather
Others
Troubled
Become
Difficulties
Ideas
Anxious
Things
Worried
Men
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Never say of anything I have lost it, only say that I have given it back.
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Let silence be your general rule or say only what is necessary and in few words.
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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!’.
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Difficulty shows what men are.
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A guide, on finding a man who has lost his way, brings him back to the right path—he does not mock and jeer at him and then take himself off. You also must show the unlearned man the truth, and you will see that he will follow. But so long as you do not show it him, you should not mock, but rather feel your own incapacity.
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When the Idea, of any Pleasure strikes your Imagination... let that time be employed in making a just Computation between, the duration of the Pleasure, and that of the Repentance sure to follow it.
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Here is the beginning of philosophy: a recognition of the conflicts between men, a search for their cause, a condemnation of mere opinion .. . and the discovery of a standard of judgement.
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I have to die. If it is now, well then I die now if later, then now I will take my lunch, since the hour for lunch has arrived - and dying I will tend to later.
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If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.
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Choose the life that is noblest, for custom can make it sweet to thee.
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Don’t consent to be hurt and you won’t be hurt – this is a choice over which you have control
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Silence is safer than speech.
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Try not to react merely in the moment. Pull back from the situation. Take a wider view. Compose yourself.
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The essence of good and evil is a certain disposition of the will.
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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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What ought one to say then as each hardship comes? I was practicing for this, I was training for this.
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People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.
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The pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us greatest delight.
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Man is not fully free unless he is master of himself.
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There is nothing good or evil save in the will.
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