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

Because I have no natural gifts, shall I on that account give up my discipline? Far be it from me! Epictetus will not be better than Socrates, but if only I am not worse, that suffices me. For I shall not be a Milo, either, and yet I do not neglect my body, nor a Croesus, and yet I do not neglect my property, nor, in a word, is there any other field in which we give up the appropriate discipline merely from despair of attaining the highest.

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.

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.

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

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.

But shall he argue, indeed, and then not take pains to avoid conducting himself recklessly and at haphazard in an argument? And if he does not, how will he any longer be the sort of man we think he is? (...) Let them show that he will be able, and all these speculations become mere superfluity, they were absurd and inconsistent with our preconception of the good man.

Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents.

If a person gave your body to any stranger he met on is way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in handing over your own mind to be confused and mystified by anyone who happens to verbally attack you?