Happiness is commonly mistaken for passively experienced pleasure or leisure. That conception of happiness is good only as far as it goes. The only worthy object of all our efforts is a flourishing life. True happiness is a verb. It’s the ongoing dynamic performance of worthy deeds. The flourishing life, whose foundation is virtuous intention, is something we continually improvise, and in doing so our souls mature. Our life has usefulness to ourselves and to the people we touch.

— Epictetus

Epictetus Quotes

The whole point of learning is to live out the teachings.

— Epictetus

They may kill me, but they cannot hurt me. – Socrates.

— Epictetus

Inner peace begins when we stop saying of things, “I have lost it” and instead say, “It has been returned to where it came from.

— Epictetus

Put up with being laughed at on occasion; look around you, and give yourself a good shaking to find out who you really are.

— Epictetus

Seeing that our birth involves the blending of these two things – the body, on the one hand, that we share with animals, and, on the other hand, rationality and intelligence, that we share with the gods – most of us incline to this former relationship, wretched and dead though it is, while only a few to the one that is divine and blessed.

— Epictetus

It is better to live with one free man and to be without fear and free, than to be a slave with many.

— Epictetus

As the fire-lights in harbors by a few pieces of dry wood raises a great flame and give sufficient help to ships which are wandering on the sea; so also an illustrious man in a state which is tempest-tossed, while he is himself satisfied with a few things does great services to his citizens.

— Epictetus

Things and people are not what we wish them to be nor what they seem to be. They are what they are.

— Epictetus

The fear of death stems from the view that it is fearful.

— Epictetus

I cannot stay in harmony if I let myself become upset by things beyond my control.

— Epictetus

Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths... Dig deeply. You possess strengths you might not realize you have. Find the right one. Use it.

— Epictetus

When you desire something outside your sphere of power, you set yourself up for disappointment.

— Epictetus

The Good stands before us like an archer’s target. Evil is not a thing in itself but a missing of the mark, an arrow gone astray.

— Epictetus

For your part, do not adopt any air of superiority. Mind your own business, keep busy with the work you are best suited for, and play well the part the Author has given you.

— Epictetus

If you find yourself acting to impress others, or avoiding action out of fear of what they might think, you have left the path.

— Epictetus

Philosophy’s purpose is to illuminate the ways our soul has been infected by unsound beliefs, untrained tumultuous desires, and dubious life choices and preferences that are unworthy of us. Self-scrutiny applied with kindness is the main antidote.

— Epictetus

Happiness is commonly mistaken for passively experienced pleasure or leisure. That conception of happiness is good only as far as it goes. The only worthy object of all our efforts is a flourishing life. True happiness is a verb. It’s the ongoing dynamic performance of worthy deeds. The flourishing life, whose foundation is virtuous intention, is something we continually improvise, and in doing so our souls mature. Our life has usefulness to ourselves and to the people we touch.

— Epictetus

Your aim should be to view the world as an integrated whole, to faithfully incline your whole being toward the highest good, and to adopt the will of nature as your own.

— Epictetus

If you intend to improve, throw away such thoughts as these: if I neglect my affairs, I shall not have the means of living: unless I chastise my slave, he will be bad. For it is better to die of hunger and so to be released from grief and fear than to live in abundance with perturbation; and it is better for your slave to be bad than for you to be unhappy.

— Epictetus

If you are kissing your child or wife, say that it is a human being whom you are kissing, for when the wife or child dies, you will not be disturbed.

— Epictetus
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