Epictetus

Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself.

If you want to be a philosopher, prepare to be mocked.

Seek not that the things which happen should happen as you wish; but wish the things which happen to be as they are, and you will have a tranquil flow of life.

The world turns aside to let any man pass who knows where he is going.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid with regard to external things.

As long as you are a human being, you are a member of a great whole, and you have a part to play. If you play it badly, you will be hissed off the stage; if well, applauded.

Show me a man who is sick and happy, in danger and happy, dying and happy, exiled and happy, disgraced and happy: show him to me, for the sake of the gods! I long to see a Stoic.

When you have decided that you are going to take a bath, be careful how you act, and don't make a scene.

If someone is able to make you angry, then he is your master.

If a man has a bad smell, he knows it not, but his neighbor knows it. So too with our faults.

To be happy is to desire nothing, since a man who desires something is not happy, but rather miserable, if he does not get what he desires.

Don't be surprised if those outside are always talking against you and making jokes about you.

What do you want to be? A philosopher? Then do what philosophers do.

If you have a mind to be a philosopher, prepare yourself from the first to be laughed at, to be sneered at by the multitude.

The greater part of what we say and do is unnecessary, and if a man would cut it out, he would have more leisure and less disturbance.

It is better to starve to death in a calm and tranquil state than to live in abundance with vexation.

When you are going to meet with any person, and particularly one of those who are considered to be great, represent to yourself what Socrates or Zeno would have done in such a case.

A man is not hurt by what happens to him, but by his opinion of what happens to him.

If a man does not know to what port he is sailing, no wind is favorable.

Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think more accurately, to be less of a slave to your passions.