Epictetus was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He was born in around 50 AD in Hierapolis, Phrygia (modern-day Turkey). He was originally a slave in Rome, where he studied Stoicism under the philosopher Musonius Rufus.
1. “We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.”
2. “Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
3. “It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.”
4. “First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.”
5. “Keep silence for the most part, and speak only when you must, and then briefly.”
6. “Be careful to leave your sons well instructed rather than rich, for the hopes of the instructed are better than the wealth of the ignorant.”
7. “Nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back. For your own will is always within your control.”
8. “Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.”
9. “Progress is not achieved by luck or accident, but by working on yourself daily.”
10. “Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.”
11. “First say to yourself what you would be, and then do what you have to do.”
12. “Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.”
13. “People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them.”
14. “Desire and happiness cannot live together.”
15. “Seek not the good in external things; seek it in yourselves.”
16. “The best place to get help is from yourself.”
17. “Happiness and personal fulfillment are the natural consequences of doing the right thing.”
18. “We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”
19. “The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.”
20. “Freedom and happiness are won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.”
21. “Don’t seek to have events happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do happen, and all will be well with you.”
22. “The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.”
23. “Control thy passions lest they take vengeance on thee.”
24. “Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some things are not.”
25. “If anyone is unhappy, remember that his unhappiness is his own fault. Nothing else is the cause of anxiety or loss of tranquility except our own opinion.”
These top 25 Epictetus Quotes on life, philosophy, and empowerment encapsulate the Stoic principles of focusing on what we can control, maintaining a positive and rational perspective, and striving for inner strength and wisdom.
