"Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens."
Read quote
36 likes
Quote collection
Epictetus quotes (page 4 of 24)
467 quotes — follow a thought to its full quote page.
"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."
Read quote
34 likes
"When something happens, the only thing in your power is your attitude toward it; you can either accept it or resent it."
Read quote
34 likes
"Nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back. For your own will is always within your control. Sickness may challenge your body. But are you merely your body? Lameness may impede your legs. But you are not merely your legs. Your will is bigger than your legs. Your will needn't be affected by an incident unless you let it."
Read quote
33 likes
"What is a good person? One who achieves tranquillity by having formed the habit of asking on every occasion, "what is the right thing to do now?""
Read quote
33 likes
"No matter where you find yourself, comport yourself as if you were a distinguished person."
Read quote
33 likes
"First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak."
Read quote
33 likes
"I laugh at those who think they can damage me. They do not know who I am, they do not know what I think, they cannot even touch the things which are really mine and with which I live."
Read quote
32 likes
"If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid."
Read quote
32 likes
"Progress is not achieved by luck or accident, but by working on yourself daily."
Read quote
31 likes
"Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions."
Read quote
30 likes
"We all carry the seeds of greatness within us, but we need an image as a point of focus in order that they may sprout."
Read quote
29 likes
"If you hear that someone is speaking ill of you, instead of trying to defend yourself you should say: 'He obviously does not know me very well, since there are so many other faults he could have mentioned.'"
Read quote
29 likes
"God has entrusted me with myself."
Read quote
29 likes
"Let silence be your general rule; or say only what is necessary and in few words."
Read quote
28 likes
"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. For, it is difficult to both keep your faculty of choice in a state conformable to nature, and at the same time acquire external things. But while you are careful about the one, you must of necessity neglect the other"
Read quote
28 likes
"It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting."
Read quote
27 likes
"Seek not the good in external things;seek it in yourselves."
Read quote
27 likes
"The foolish and the uneducated have little use for freedom. Only the educated are free."
Read quote
27 likes
"Other people's views and troubles can be contagious. Don't sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others."
Read quote
26 likes