Epictetus
Epictetus
Epictetuswas a Greek-speaking Stoic philosopher. He was born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia, and lived in Rome until his banishment, when he went to Nicopolis in north-western Greece for the rest of his life. His teachings were written down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses and Enchiridion...
NationalityGreek
ProfessionPhilosopher
writing wish needs
If you can make music with someone you don't need words. If you wish to be a writer, write.
thinking happens
It is not so much what happens to you as how you think about what happens." Epictetus
fighting men games
Neither the victories of the Olympic Games nor those achieved in battles make the man happy. The only victories that make him happy are those achieved against himself. Temptations and tests are combats. You have beaten one, two, many times; still fight. If you defeat at last you will be happy your entire life, as if you have always defeated.
desire together
Desire and happiness cannot live together.
mean giving give-me
Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one that is longer but of less account!
children lost-love wife
Never in any case say I have lost such a thing, but I have returned it. Is your child dead? It is a return. Is your wife dead? It is a return. Are you deprived of your estate? Is not this also a return?
learning giving credit
We are not to give credit to the many, who say that none ought to be educated but the free; but rather to the philosophers, who say that the well-educated alone are free.
anger sacrifice emotion
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.
wise trying seems
Do not try to seem wise to others.
evil religion want
Either God wants to abolish evil, and cannot; or he can, but does not want to.
writing would-be reader
If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write.
wine exercise dust
So you wish to conquer in the Olympic Games, my friend? And I, too... But first mark the conditions and the consequences. You will have to put yourself under discipline; to eat by rule, to avoid cakes and sweetmeats; to take exercise at the appointed hour whether you like it or not, in cold and heat; to abstain from cold drinks and wine at your will. Then, in the conflict itself you are likely enough to dislocate your wrist or twist your ankle, to swallow a great deal of dust, to be severely thrashed, and after all of these things, to be defeated.
men difficulty shows
Difficulty shows what men are.
stupid choices wish
If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to external things. Don't wish to be thought to know anything; and even if you appear to be somebody important to others, distrust yourself. For, it is difficult to both keep your faculty of choice in a state conformable to nature, and at the same time acquire external things. But while you are careful about the one, you must of necessity neglect the other