Freedom, you see, is having events go in accordance with our will, never contrary to it.

— Epictetus

God has entrusted me with myself.

— Epictetus

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

— Epictetus

He is a drunkard who takes more than three glasses though he is not drunk.

— Epictetus

He is a man of sense who does not grieve for what he has not but rejoices in what he has.

— Epictetus

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

He who exercises wisdom, exercises the knowledge which is about God.

— Epictetus

How long are you going to wait before you demand the best for yourself and in no instance bypass the discriminations of reason? You have been given the principles that you ought to endorse, and you have endorsed them. What kind of teacher, then, are you still waiting for in order to refer your self-improvement to him? You are no longer a boy, but a full-grown man. If you are careless and lazy now and keep putting things off and always deferring the day after which you will attend to yourself, you will not notice that you are making no progress, but you will live and die as someone quite ordinary. From now on, then, resolve to live as a grown-up who is making progress, and make whatever you think best a law that you never set aside. And whenever you encounter anything that is difficult or pleasurable, or highly or lowly regarded, remember that the contest is now: you are at the Olympic Games, you cannot wait any longer, and that your progress is wrecked or preserved by a single day and a single event. That is how Socrates fulfilled himself by attending to nothing except reason in everything he encountered. And you, although you are not yet a Socrates, should live as someone who at least wants to be a Socrates.

— Epictetus

I cannot call somebody ‘hard-working’ knowing only that they read and write. Even if ‘all night long’ is added, I cannot say it – not until I know the focus of all this energy.

— Epictetus

If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you but answer, "He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.

— Epictetus