Laurent > Laurent's Quotes

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

“People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.”
― Epictetus, Enchiridion

“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

“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

“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

“If evil be said of thee, and if it be true, correct thyself; if it be a lie, laugh at it.”
― Epictetus

“To accuse others for one's own misfortune is a sign of want of education. To accuse oneself shows that one's education has begun. To accuse neither oneself nor others shows that one's education is complete.”
― Epictetus

“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems”
― Epictetus

“The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests. ”
― Epictetus

“Difficulty shows what men are. Therefore when a difficulty falls upon you, remember that God, like a trainer of wrestlers, has matched you with a rough young man. Why? So that you may become an Olympic conqueror; but it is not accomplished without sweat.”
― Epictetus, Epictetus. The Discourses as Reported By Arrian. Vol. I. Books 1 and 2. With an English Translation By W. A. Oldfather

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

“Give me by all means the shorter and nobler life, instead of one
that is longer but of less account!”
― Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“Seek not the good in external things;seek it in yourselves.”
― Epictetus

“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”
― 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

“Demand not that things happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do, and you will go on well.”
― Epictetus, The Discourses

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

“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to external things. Don't wish to be thought to know anything; and even if you appear to be somebody important to others, distrust yourself. For, it is difficult to both keep your faculty of choice in a state conformable to nature, and at the same time acquire external things. But while you are careful about the one, you must of necessity neglect the other”
― Epictetus

“No man is free who is not master of himself.”
― Epictetus

“Asked, Who is the rich man? Epictetus replied, “He who is content.”
― Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single
hope”
― Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of Epictetus

“Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may
hear from others twice as much as we speak.”
― Epictetus

“Even as the Sun doth not wait for prayers and incantations to
rise, but shines forth and is welcomed by all: so thou also wait
not for clapping of hands and shouts and praise to do thy duty;
nay, do good of thine own accord, and thou wilt be loved like the
Sun.”
― Epictetus, The Golden Sayings of Epictetus