Epictetus

Epictetus (Ancient Greek: AD 55–135) was a Greek sage and Stoic philosopher. He was born a slave at Hierapolis, Phrygia (present day Pamukkale, Turkey), and lived in Rome until his banishment, when he went to Nicopolis in northwestern Greece for the rest of his life. His teachings were written down and published by his pupil Arrian in his Discourses.
Philosophy, Epictetus taught, is a way of life and not just a theoretical discipline. To Epictetus, all external events are determined by fate, and are thus beyond our control; we should accept whatever happens calmly and dispassionately. However, individuals are responsible for their own actions, which they can examine and control through rigorous self-discipline.
Suffering occurs from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power. As part of the universal city that is the universe, it is our duty to care for all our fellow men. Those who follow these precepts will achieve happiness and peace of mind /ዊኪ/


“Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents." Translation by Sharon Lebell”

“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.”
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“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
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“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will. ”

“Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
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 “First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do.”
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“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems”

“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
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“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
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“Other people's views and troubles can be contagious. Don't sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others.”
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“It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
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“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master;
he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”
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“He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.”
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“All religions must be tolerated... for every man must get to heaven in his own way.”
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“People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.”
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“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself and in no instance bypass the discriminations of reason? You have been given the principles that you ought to endorse, and you have endorsed them. What kind of teacher, then, are you still waiting for in order to refer your self-improvement to him? You are no longer a boy, but a full-grown man. If you are careless and lazy now and keep putting things off and always deferring the day after which you will attend to yourself, you will not notice that you are making no progress, but you will live and die as someone quite ordinary.
From now on, then, resolve to live as a grown-up who is making progress, and make whatever you think best a law that you never set aside. And whenever you encounter anything that is difficult or pleasurable, or highly or lowly regarded, remember that the contest is now: you are at the Olympic Games, you cannot wait any longer, and that your progress is wrecked or preserved by a single day and a single event. That is how Socrates fulfilled himself by attending to nothing except reason in everything he encountered. And you, although you are not yet a Socrates, should live as someone who at least wants to be a Socrates.” 

 

“Only the educated are free.”
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“Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself.”

“First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.”
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“To accuse others for one's own misfortune is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.”
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“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
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“You are a little soul carrying around a corpse”

“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. ”
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“Attach yourself to what is spiritually superior, regardless of what other people think or do. Hold to your true aspirations no matter what is going on around you.”
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“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has. ”
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“Seek not the good in external things;seek it in yourselves.”
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“No man is free who is not master of himself.”
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“Caretake this moment. Immerse yourself in its particulars. Respond to this person, this challenge, this deed. Quit evasions. Stop giving yourself needless trouble. It is time to really live; to fully inhabit the situation you happen to be in now.”
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“Don't seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.”
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“If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it.”
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