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
life finding-yourself matter
No matter where you find yourself, comport yourself as if you were a distinguished person.
love-you self ideas
Never depend on the admiration of others for self-satisfaction. It is a fact of life that other people, even people who love you, will not necessarily agree with your ideas, understand you always, or share your enthusiasms.
friendship best-friend uplifting
The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.
fighting limits accepting
By accepting life's limits and inevitabilities and working with them rather than fighting them, we become free.
god thinking eating
Renew every day your conversation with God: Do this even in preference to eating. Think more often of God than you breathe.
ruins recovering
Ruin and recovering are both from within.
children leader parent
Our duties naturally emerge form such fundamental relations as our families, neighborhoods, workplaces, our state or nation. Make it your regular habit to consider your roles-parent, child, neighbor, citizen, leader-and the natural duties that arise from them. Once you know who you are and to whom you are linked, you will know what to do.
wise what-matters care
What matters most is what sort of person you are becoming. Wise individuals care only about whom they are today and who they can be tomorrow.
food mind bears
Bear in mind that you should conduct yourself in life as at a feast.
life wish demand
Don't demand or expect that events happen as you would wish them do. Accept events as they actually happen. That way, peace is possible.
events opinion habit
Be careful whom you associate with. It is human to imitate the habits of those with whom we interact. We inadvertently adopt their interests, their opinions, their values, and their habit of interpreting events.
philosophical libertarian moderation
If one oversteps the bounds of moderation, the greatest pleasures cease to please.
swans nightingales
Were I a nightingale, I would act the part of a nightingale; were I a swan, the part of a swan.
sorrow wish doe
The origin of sorrow is this: to wish for something that does not come to pass.