Quotes from: Epictetus

1195

What concerns me is not the way things are, but the way people think things are

1170

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

1148

No great thing is created suddenly

1125

….when things seem to have reached that stage, merely say “I won’t play any longer”, and take your departure; but if you stay, stop lamenting

1097

Demand not that things happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do, and you will go on well

1069

We are not disturbed by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens to us

1053

Events do not just happen, but arrive by appointment

1030

If you would cure anger, do not feed it. Say to yourself: ‘I used to be angry every day; then every other day; now only every third or fourth day.’ When you reach thirty days offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the gods

1008

Difficulty shows what men are. Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man. Why? So that you may become an Olympic conqueror; but it is not accomplished without sweat

981

A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope