Controversial Sayings

He marvelled that anyone should make money by the profession of virtue, and should not reflect that his highest reward would be the gain of a good friend.

Freedom and slavery, the one is the name of virtue, and the other of vice, and both are acts of the will.

When you are offended at any man's fault, turn to yourself and study your own failings.

For desire, suspend it completely for now. Because if you desire something outside your control, you are bound to be disappointed; and even things we do control, which under other circumstances would be deserving of our desire, are not yet within our…

Freedom isn't secured by filling up on your heart's desire but by removing your desire.

For where you find unrest, grief, fear, frustrated desire, failed aversion, jealousy and envy, happiness has no room for admittance. And where values are false, these passions inevitably follow.

Those proficient praise no one, blame no one, and accuse no one. They say nothing concerning their self as being anybody or knowing anything.

If you have assumed a character beyond your strength, you have both played a poor figure in that, and neglected one that is within your powers.

Protect what belongs to you at all costs; don't desire what belongs to another.

What you shun enduring yourself, attempt not to impose on others. You shun slavery- beware enslaving others! If you can endure to do that, one would think you had been once upon a time a slave yourself. For vice has nothing in common with virtue, nor…

If, however, he has his victim's weakness to exploit, then his efforts are worth his while.

Good and evil, in his view, come only from those things that progress from our will.

An uninstructed person will lay the fault of his own bad condition upon others. To begin to be instructed, he will lay the fault on himself. When he is fully instructed, he will blame neither others nor himself.

Suffering arises from trying to control what is uncontrollable, or from neglecting what is within our power.

I must die. I must be imprisoned. I must suffer exile. But must I die groaning? Must I whine as well? Can anyone hinder me from going into exile with a smile? The master threatens to chain me: what say you? Chain me? My leg you will chain–yes, but no…

If you pin your hopes on things outside your control, taking upon yourself things which rightfully belong to others, you are liable to stumble, fall, suffer, and blame both gods and men.

Make the best use of what is in your power, and take the rest as it happens.

Good and evil, per Epictetus, lie only in the will.

Choose to be either free or a slave, enlightened or a fool, a thoroughbred or a nag. Either resign yourself to a life of abuse till you die, or escape it immediately. For God's sake, don't put up with years of abuse, and then change your mind! This h…

If you see anybody wail and complain, call him a slave, though he be clad in purple.