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You can be happy if you know this secret: Some things are within your power to control and some things are not.

Epictetus

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Epictetus
Philosopher
Epictetus of Hierapolis
Things
Joy
Control
Secret
Within
Happy
Power

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When you let go of your attention for a little while, do not think you may recover it whenever you please.
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You may fetter my leg, but Zeus himself cannot get the better of my free will.
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What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance.
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The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.
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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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God has entrusted me with myself. No man is free who is not master of himself. A man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.
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When we act pugnaciously, and injuriously, and angrily, and rudely, to what level have we degenerated? To the level of the wild beasts. Well, the fact is that some of us are wild beasts of a larger size, while others are little animals, malignant and petty.
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Some things are up to us [eph' hêmin] and some things are not up to us. Our opinions are up to us, and our impulses, desires, aversions–in short, whatever is our own doing. Our bodies are not up to us, nor are our possessions, our reputations, or our public offices, or, that is, whatever is not our own doing.
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We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.
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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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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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People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.
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If you would be a reader, read if a writer, write.
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The origin of sorrow is this: to wish for something that does not come to pass.
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We all carry the seeds of greatness within us, but we need an image as a point of focus in order that they may sprout.
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Wish that everything should come about just as it does.
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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.
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Every place is safe to him who lives with justice.
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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.
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Any person capable of angering you becomes your master.
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