Book detail: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments is presented as a focused source page for quotations connected with this book, collection, transcript, or source record.
The Works of Epictetus is a comprehensive compilation of the teachings and philosophies of Epictetus, a prominent Stoic philosopher from the 1st century AD. The book features his discourses, organized into four books, the Enchiridion, a concise summary of his teachings, and additional fragments that provide further insight into his philosophical ideas. Epictetus's works focus on the principles of Stoicism, including self-discipline, rationality, and the importance of focusing on what can be controlled in life.
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“When one maintains his proper attitude in life, he does not long after externals.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“If what the philosophers say be true, that all men's actions proceed from one source; that as they assent from a persuasion that a thing is so, and dissent from a persuasion that it is not, and suspend their judgment from a persuasion that it is uncertain, so likewise they seek a thing from a persuasion that it is for their advantage.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“There are some things which men confess with ease, and others with difficulty.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“Since it is Reason which shapes and regulates all other things, it ought not itself to be left in disorder.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“It is wicked to withdraw from being useful to the needy, and cowardly to give way to the worthless.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“Against specious appearances we must set clear convictions, bright and ready for use. When death appears as an evil, we ought immediately to remember that evils are things to be avoided, but death is inevitable.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“We all dread a bodily paralysis, and would make use of every contrivance to avoid it; but none of us is troubled about a paralysis of the soul.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“It is my business, to manage carefully and dexterously whatever happens”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“We ought to flee the friendship of the wicked, and the enmity of the good.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“Fight against yourself, recover yourself to decency, to modesty, to freedom. And, in the first place, condemn your actions; but when you have condemned them, do not despair of yourself. For both ruin and recovery are from within.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“No living being is held by anything so strongly as its own needs.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“Appearances to the mind are of four kinds. Things either are what they appear to be; or they neither are, nor appear to be; or they are, and do not appear to be; or they are not, and yet appear to be. Rightly to aim in all these cases is the wise man's task.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“Appear to know only this--never to fail nor fall.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“The good or ill of a man lies within his own will.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“The cause of all human evils is the not being able to apply general principles to special cases.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“Nothing great is created suddenly, any more than a bunch of grapes or a fig.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“What will the world be quite overturned when you die?”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“It is your own convictions which compels you; that is, choice compels choice.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“To adorn our characters by the charm of an amiable nature shows at once a lover of beauty and a lover of man.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“In theory there is nothing to hinder our following what we are taught;but in life there are many things to draw us aside.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“Any one thing in the creation is sufficient to demonstrate a Providence to a humble and grateful mind.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“Freedom is not procured by a full enjoyment of what is desired, but by controlling the desire.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“There is nothing good or evil save in the will.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“If virtue promises happiness, prosperity and peace, then progress in virtue is progress in each of these for to whatever point the perfection of anything brings us, progress is always an approach toward it.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“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.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“If we are not stupid or insincere when we say that the good or ill of man lies within his own will, and that all beside is nothing to us, why are we still troubled?”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“Two principles we should always have ready — that there is nothing good or evil save in the will; and that we are not to lead events, but to follow them.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“Reason is not measured by size or height, but by principle.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“It were no slight attainment could we merely fulfil what the nature of man implies.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“No living being is held by anything so strongly as by its own needs. Whatever therefore appears a hindrance to these, be it brother, or father, or child, or mistress, or friend, is hated, abhorred, execrated.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments
“The soul is unwillingly deprived of truth.”
Source: The Works of Epictetus: Consisting of His Discourses, in Four Books, the Enchiridion, and Fragments