Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
– Epictetus
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
– Epictetus
No great thing is created suddenly.
– Epictetus
Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.
– Epictetus
Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.
– Epictetus
Another person will not hurt you without your cooperation; you are hurt the moment you believe yourself to be.
– Epictetus
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
– Epictetus
If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, “He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.
– Epictetus
People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.
– Epictetus
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems
– Epictetus
Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.
– Epictetus
He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
– Epictetus
Show your intelligence by listening as twice as you can talk, simply because we have two ears and one tongue.
– Epictetus
Don’t live by your own rules, but in harmony with nature.
– Epictetus
He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.
– Epictetus
Do not try to seem wise to others.
– Epictetus
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will.
– Epictetus
Only the educated are free.
– Epictetus
All religions must be tolerated… for every man must get to heaven in his own way.
– Epictetus
Difficulty shows what men are.
– Epictetus
It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
– Epictetus
If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.
– Epictetus
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.
– Epictetus
No man is free who is not master of himself.
– Epictetus
Fortify thyself with contentment: that is an impregnable stronghold.
– Epictetus
The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.
– Epictetus
Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.
– Epictetus
Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.
– Epictetus
If you wish to be a writer, write.
– Epictetus