Epictetus
Stoic philosopher, former slave
Sayings by Epictetus
Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.
Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
Only the educated are free.
God save me from fools with a little philosophy—no one is more difficult to reach.
The philosopher's school, ye men, is a surgery: you ought not to go out of it with pleasure, but with pain. For you are not in sound health when you enter.
When you have said 'Tomorrow I will begin to attend,' you must be told that you are saying this: 'Today I will be shameless, disregardful of time and place, mean; it will be in the power of others to give me pain, today I will be passionate and envious. See how many evil things you are permitting yourself to do.'
What need is there to weep over parts of life? The whole of it calls for tears.
If your mind is not polluted by these things, you will always be healthy.
As a man, you are a fragment of God; you have within you a part of Him. Why then are you ignorant of your own kinship, or do you not know whence you came?
If a man has a bad smell, he may be asked, 'To what does this belong?' To a man. 'Yes, but to a bad man.' To a bad man? 'Yes, for he is a beast.'
If you wish to be good, first believe that you are bad.
When you have decided that a thing is good, and you cling to it, and you are not disturbed by it, then you have found your true good.
If you always remember that God stands by you, and inspects your acts, whether in soul or body, you will not err either in your prayers or in your acts.
If you are struck by the appearance of any promised pleasure, guard yourself against being carried away by it; but let this thought wait for you, 'How long will it last, and then how much remorse and shame will follow!'
Whoever is not content with what he has, would not be content with what he wishes to have.
It is better to starve than to eat meat offered to idols.
Every man's life is a warfare, and that long and various.
If a man is unhappy, this must be due to his own fault, that he has forgotten that all things are in his own power.
Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Live free and flourish.
The greatest good is that which is chosen in spite of fear.