Epictetus Philosophy Quotes

#1. No matter how many compromises were made along the way, no matter what happens in the future, a book is a thing to behold.

Betsy Lerner

#2. The beginning of philosophy is the recognition of the conflict between opinions.

Epictetus

#3. People went through life like well handled jugs, collecting chips and scrapes and stains from wear and tear, from holding and pouring life.

Sarah Hall

#4. What is it to be a philosopher? Is it not to be prepared against events?

Epictetus

#5. Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.

Epictetus

#6. Ancient Egyptians believed that upon death they would be asked two questions and their answers would determine whether they could continue their journey in the afterlife. The first question was, 'Did you bring joy?' The second was, 'Did you find joy?

Leo Buscaglia

#7. Everything's better with some wine in the belly.

George R R Martin

#8. The essence of philosophy is that a man should so live that his happiness shall depend as little as possible on external things.

Epictetus

#9. For in this Case, we are not to give Credit to the Many, who say, that none ought to be educated but the Free; but rather to the Philosophers, who say, that the Well-educated alone are free.

Epictetus

#10. The philosopher's lecture room is a 'hospital': you ought not to walk out of it in a state of pleasure, but in pain; for you are not in good condition when you arrive.

Epictetus

#11. That is the way things are weighed and disagreements settled - when standards are established. Philosophy aims to test and set such standards. And the wise man is advised to make use of their findings right way.

Epictetus

#12. Philosophy does not promise to secure anything external for man, otherwise it would be admitting something that lies beyond its proper subject-matter. For as the material of the carpenter is wood, and that of statuary bronze, so the subject-matter of the art of living is each person's own life.

Epictetus

#13. Those who cannot illuminate even a gloomy street often talk about illuminating the world!

Mehmet Murat Ildan

#14. Horrendous cold - at forty below, the Celsius and Fahrenheit thermometers agree wholeheartedly. Feels like forty below, they say, staring at each other and echoing their verdict back and forth in the icy silence. Forty below! Stones would freeze in this weather; souls would freeze.

Nancy Huston

#15. What is the first business of one who practices philosophy? To get rid of self-conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows.

Epictetus

#16. What really frightens and dismays us is not external events themselves, but the way in which we think about them. It is not things that disturb us, but our interpretation of their significance.

Epictetus

#17. The Beginning of Philosophy is a Consciousness of your own Weakness and inability in necessary things.

Epictetus

#18. Except for cases that clearly involve a homicidal maniac, the police like to believe murders are committed by those we know and love, and most of the time they're right - a chilling thought when you sit down to dinner with a family of five. All those potential killers passing their plates.

Sue Grafton

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

Epictetus

#20. I think maybe because I moved a lot in my childhood, I'm a little bit of a gypsy by nature.

Carla Gugino

#21. Whether professionals have a chance to develop intuitive expertise depends essentially on the quality and speed of feedback, as well as on sufficient opportunity to practice.

Daniel Kahneman

#22. God save me from fools with a little philosophy - no one is more difficult to reach.

Epictetus

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

Epictetus

#24. Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.

Epictetus

#25. Sick and yet happy, in peril and yet happy, dying and yet happy, in exile and happy, in disgrace and happy.

Epictetus

#26. 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!'.

Epictetus

#27. 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.

Epictetus

#28. It is our attitude toward events, not events themselves, which we can control. Nothing is by its own nature calamitous
even death is terrible only if we fear it.

Epictetus

#29. The philosopher's school, ye men, is a surgery: you ought not to go out of it with pleasure, but with pain. For you are not in sound health when you enter.

Epictetus

#30. It is more necessary for the soul to be cured than the body; for it is better to die than to live badly.

Epictetus

#31. Whoever is going to listen to the philosophers needs a considerable practice in listening.

Epictetus

#32. Ah hell. We had more fun in a week than those weenies had in a lifetime.

Pancho Barnes

#33. 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.

Epictetus

#34. The history of the race is but that of the individual "writ large".

George Henry Lewes

#35. All philosophy lies in two words, sustain and abstain.

Epictetus

#36. Philosophy does not claim to secure for us anything outside our control. Otherwise it would be taking on matters that do not concern it. For as wood is the material of the carpenter, and marble that of the sculptor, so the subject matter of the art of life is the life of the self.

Epictetus

#37. 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.

Epictetus