Junaid Iqbal > Junaid's Quotes

“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
― Epictetus

“Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
― Epictetus

“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.”
― Epictetus, The Art of Living: The Classical Manual on Virtue, Happiness and Effectiveness

“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will. ”
― Epictetus

“It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
― Epictetus

“First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do.”
― 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 (From Manual 51)

“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
― Epictetus

“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master;
he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”
― Epictetus

“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”
― Epictetus

“He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.”
― Epictetus

“Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself.”
― Epictetus

“Other people's views and troubles can be contagious. Don't sabotage yourself by unwittingly adopting negative, unproductive attitudes through your associations with others.”
― Epictetus

“The greatest of empires, is the empire over one's self.”
― Publilius Syrus

“From the errors of others,
a wise man corrects his own.”
― Publilius Syrus

“Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.”
― Aristotle

“Patience is bitter, but its fruit is sweet.”
― Aristotle

“He who has overcome his fears will truly be free.”
― Aristotle

“To perceive is to suffer.”
― Aristotle

“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

“Attach yourself to what is spiritually superior, regardless of what other people think or do. Hold to your true aspirations no matter what is going on around you.”
― Epictetus

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”
― Epictetus

“It takes a long time to bring excellence to maturity.”
― Publilius Syrus

“We should keep our word even to the undeserving.”
― Publius Syrus, The Moral Sayings of Publius Syrus: A Roman Slave

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