Epictetus Men Quotations

The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the view which they take of them.

Men are disturbed not by things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen.

Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them

Difficulties show men what they are. In case of any difficulty remember that God has pitted you against a rough antagonist that you may be a conqueror, and this cannot be without toil.

When a man is proud because he can understand and explain the writings of Chrysippus, say to yourself, 'if Chrysippus had not written obscurely, this man would have had nothing to be proud of.'

A man that seeks truth and loves it must be reckoned precious to any human society.

Each man's life is a kind of campaign, and a long and complicated one at that. You have to maintain the character of a soldier, and do each separate act at the bidding of the General.

In theory it is easy to convince an ignorant person; in actual life, men not only object to offer themselves to be convinced, but hate the man who has convinced them.

It is unlikely that the good of a snail should reside in its shell: so is it likely that the good of a man should?

As a man, casting off worn out garments taketh new ones, so the dweller in the body, entereth into ones that are new.

Try to enjoy the great festival of life with other men!

What is it that every man seeks? To be secure, to be happy, to do what he pleases without restraint and without compulsion.

Remember that you are an actor in a drama of such sort as the Author chooses: if short, then in a short one; if long, then in a long one. If it be His pleasure that you should enact a poor man, or a cripple, or a ruler, or a private citizen, see that you act it well. For this is your business, to act well the given part. But to choose it belongs to Another.

It were no slight attainment could we merely fulfil what the nature of man implies.

Remember that you are but an actor, acting whatever part the Master has ordained. It may be short or it may be long. If he wishes you to represent a poor man, do so heartily; if a cripple, or a magistrate, or a private man, in each case act your part with honor.

Remember that you are an actor in a play, and that the Playwright chooses the manner of it: If he wants you to act a poor man you must act the part with all your powers; and so if your part be a cripple or a magistrate or a plain man. For your business is to act the character that is given you and act it well. The choice of the cast is Another's.

No man is disturbed by things, but by his opinion about things.

To adorn our characters by the charm of an amiable nature shows at once a lover of beauty and a lover of man.

I must die. Must I then die lamenting? I must be put in chains. Must I then also lament? I must go into exile. Does any man then hinder me from going with smiles and cheerfulness and contentment?

Neither the victories of the Olympic Games nor those achieved in battles make the man happy. The only victories that make him happy are those achieved against himself. Temptations and tests are combats. You have beaten one, two, many times; still fight. If you defeat at last you will be happy your entire life, as if you have always defeated.

Difficulty shows what men are.

Asked, Who is the rich man? Epictetus replied, �He who is content.

I am not eternity, but a man; a part of the whole, as an hour is of the day.

When men are unhappy, they do not imagine they can ever cease to be so; and when some calamity has fallen on them, they do not see how they can get rid of it. Nevertheless, both arrive; and the gods have ordered it so, in the end men seek it from the gods

What else can I do, a lame old man, but sing hymns to God? If I were a nightingale, I would do the nightingale's part; if I were a swan, I would do as a swan. But now I am a rational creature, and I ought to praise God. This is my work. I do it, nor will I desert my post, so long as I am allowed to keep it. And I ask you to join me in this same song.

God has entrusted me with myself. No man is free who is not master of himself. A man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things. The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.

If any be unhappy, let him remember that he is unhappy by reason of himself alone. For God hath made all men to enjoy felicity and constancy of good.

A guide, on finding a man who has lost his way, brings him back to the right path—he does not mock and jeer at him and then take himself off. You also must show the unlearned man the truth, and you will see that he will follow. But so long as you do not show it him, you should not mock, but rather feel your own incapacity.

Know you not that a good man does nothing for appearance sake, but for the sake of having done right?

Let no man think that he is loved by any who loveth none.

In the long run, every man will pay the penalty for this own misdeeds.

It is not events that disturb the minds of men, but the view they take of them.

There are some faults which men readily admit, but others not so readily.

No man is free who is not master of himself... Is freedom anything else than the power of living as we choose?

If you think you control things that are in the control of others, you will lament. You will be disturbed and you will blame both gods and men.

These are the signs of a wise man: to reprove nobody, to praise nobody, to blame nobody, nor even to speak of himself or his own merits.

If what the philosophers say be true, that all men's actions proceed from one source; that as they assent from a persuasion that a thing is so, and dissent from a persuasion that it is not, and suspend their judgment from a persuasion that it is uncertain, so likewise they seek a thing from a persuasion that it is for their advantage.

Do not so much be ashamed of that disgrace which proceeds from men's opinion as fly from that which comes from the truth.

It is no easy thing for a principle to become a man's own unless each day he maintains it and works it out in his life.

There are some things which men confess with ease, and others with difficulty.

But to be hanged is that not unendurable?" Even so, when a man feels that it is reasonable, he goes off and hangs himself.

The appearance of things to the mind is the standard of every action to man.

Man is not fully free unless he is master of himself.

If a man is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault, for God made all men to be happy.

If we are not stupid or insincere when we say that the good or ill of man lies within his own will, and that all beside is nothing to us, why are we still troubled?

What disturbs and alarms man are not the things, but his opinions and fancies about the things.

Here is the beginning of philosophy: a recognition of the conflicts between men, a search for their cause, a condemnation of mere opinion .. . and the discovery of a standard of judgement.

Be free from grief not through insensibility like the irrational animals, nor through want of thought like the foolish, but like a man of virtue by having reason as the consolation of grief.

Men are not troubled by things themselves, but by their thoughts about them

Men are not worried by things, but by their ideas about things. When we meet with difficulties, become anxious or troubled, let us not blame others, but rather ourselves. That is: our ideas about things.

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!’.

Man is troubled not by events, but by the meaning he gives them.

Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man's task.

Men are not afraid of things, but of how they view them.

It is difficulties that show what men are.

Not things, but opinions about things, trouble men.

It is the act of an ill-instructed man to blame others for his own bad condition; it is the act of one who has begun to be instructed, to lay the blame on himself; and of one whose instruction is completed, neither to blame another, nor himself.

No man is able to make progress when he is wavering between opposite things.

Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself.

Men are disturbed not by the things that happen, but by their opinion of the things that happen.

Law intends indeed to do service to human life, but it is not able when men do not choose to accept her services; for it is only in those who are obedient to her that she displays her special virtue.

Is freedom anything else than the power of living as we choose? Nothing else. Tell me then, you men, do you wish to live in error? We do not. No one who lives in error is free. Do you wish to live in fear? Do you wish to live in sorrow? Do you wish to live in tension? By no means. No one who is in a state of fear or sorrow or tension is free, but whoever is delivered from sorrows or fears or anxieties, he is at the same time also delivered from servitude.

You know yourself what you are worth in your own eyes; and at what price you will sell yourself. For men sell themselves at various prices. This is why, when Florus was deliberating whether he should appear at Nero's shows, taking part in the performance himself, Agrippinus replied, 'Appear by all means.' And when Florus inquired, 'But why do not you appear?' he answered, 'Because I do not even consider the question.' For the man who has once stooped to consider such questions, and to reckon up the value of external things, is not far from forgetting what manner of man he is.

All religions must be tolerated for every man must get to heaven in his own way.

The good or ill of a man lies within his own will.

A vulgar man, in any ill that happens to him, blames others; a novice in philosophy blames himself; and a philosopher blames neither, the one nor the other.

God has made all men to be happy.

Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems

An ignorant person is inclined to blame others for his own misfortune. To blame oneself is proof of progress. But the wise man never has to blame another or himself.

Difficulties show men what they are. In case of any difficulty, remember that God has pitted you against a rough antagonist that you may be a conqueror, and this cannot be without toil.