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What disturbs and alarms man are not the things, but his opinions and fancies about the things.

Epictetus

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Epictetus
Philosopher
Epictetus of Hierapolis
Disturbs
Fancies
Alarms
Opinions
Fancy
Opinion
Things
Men

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If you desire to be good, begin by believing that you are wicked.
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We all dread a bodily paralysis, and would make use of every contrivance to avoid it but none of us is troubled about a paralysis of the soul.
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Imagine for yourself a character, a model personality, whose example you determine to follow, in private as well as in public.
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No matter where you find yourself, comport yourself as if you were a distinguished person.
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To know that you do not know and to be willing to admit that you do not know without sheepishly apologizing is real strength and sets the stage for learning and progress in any endeavor.
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On the occasion of every accident that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.
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If someone irritates you, it is only your own response that is irritating you. Therefore, when anyone seems to be provoking you, remember that it is only your judgment of the incident that provokes you. -
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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.
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We must be afraid of neither poverty nor exile nor imprisonment of fear itself only should we be afraid.
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Whoever wants to be free, therefore, let him not want or avoid anything that is up to others. Otherwise he will necessarily be a slave.
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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.
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Bid a singer in a chorus, Know Thyself and will he not turn for the knowledge to the others, his fellows in the chorus, and to his harmony with them?
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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
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If you would cure anger, do not feed it. Say to yourself: 'I used to be angry every day then every other day now only every third or fourth day.' When you reach thirty days offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods.
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Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems
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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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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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Your master is he who controls that on which you have set your heart or wish to avoid.
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Wherever any one is against his will, that is to him a prison.
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What is yours is to play the assigned part well. But to choose it belongs to someone else
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