770 Quotes by Epictetus

First say to yourself what you would be, and then do what you have to do.

Freedom is not attained through the satisfaction of desires, but through the suppression of desires.

We should realize that an opinion is not easily formed unless a person says and hears the same things every day and practises them in real life.

It isn't death, pain, exile or anything else you care to mention that accounts for the way we act, only our opinion about death, pain and the rest.

It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.

In the long run, every man will pay the penalty for his own misdeeds. The man who remembers this will be angry with no one, indignant with no one, revile no one, blame no one, offend no one, hate no one.

No greater thing is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig; if you tell me that you desire a fig, I answer you that there must be time. Let it first blossom, then bear fruit, then ripen.

A city is not adorned by external things, but by the virtue of those who dwell in it.

Check your passions that you may not be punished by them.