If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.
Difficulty shows what men are.
When a youth was giving himself airs in the Theatre and saying, ‘I am wise, for I have conversed with many wise men,’ Epictetus replied, ‘I too have conversed with many rich men, yet I am not rich!’.
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.
What saith Antisthenes? Hast thou never heard? – It is a kingly thing, O Cyrus, to do well and to be evil spoken of.
Whoever then would be free, let him wish for nothing, let him decline nothing, which depends on others; else he must necessarily be a slave.
As the sun does not wait for prayers and incantations tob e induced to rise, but immediately shines and is saluted by all, so do you also not wait for clappings of hands and shouts of praise tob e induced to do good, but be a doer of good voluntarily and you will be beloved as much as the sun.
A city is not adorned by external things, but by the virtue of those who dwell in it.
Maak er van meet af aan een goede gewoonte van tegen elke pijnlijke indruk van buitenaf te zeggen: ‘Jij bent niet meer dan een indruk! Jij bent heel anders dan je je voordoet!
Man is disturbed not by things, but by the views he takes of them.
When you are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.
If anyone is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault. Nothing else is the cause of anxiety or loss of tranquility except our own opinion.
There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power of our will.
Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.
It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.
If evil be spoken of you and it be true, correct yourself, if it be a lie, laugh at it.
He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.