Blog
Who are the Stoic Founders: Epictetus + his best quotes
Mar
Epictetus was born a slave in wealthy household nearly 2,000 years ago in Hierapolis (known today as Pamukkale in Turkey). His owner, Epaphroditus, permitted him to pursue liberal studies and that’s how Epictetus discovered philosophy. Shortly after Nero’s death, Epictetus obtained his freedom and started teaching philosophy in Rome for nearly 25 years. It lasted until Emperor Domitian banished all philosophers in Rome. Epictetus escaped to Nicopolis in Greece where he began a school of philosophy and taught there until he died.
His teachings were recorded and published by his student Arrian in his Discourses and Enchiridion. Epictetus argues that the foundation of all philosophy is self-knowledge. He explains the importance of distinguishing things that are under our control and things that are not. It is a reminder not to get upset by things which we cannot influence such as external events and other people. It urges us to focus only on ourselves and our behaviour and to remember what’s in our control. As Epictetus said, “Some things are in our control and others not. Things in our control are opinion, pursuit, desire, aversion, and, in a word, whatever are our actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our actions.”
Epictetus also argued that one must set the standard. Indeed, the best leaders rarely talk about how things should be done. Instead, they let their actions speak for themselves. Just as we admire role models, we must focus on how we are living and what choices we are making to set the highest standard. As Epictetus put it, “Never call yourself a philosopher, nor talk a great deal among the unlearned about theorems, but act conformably to them. Thus, at an entertainment, don’t talk how persons ought to eat, but eat as you ought.”
Finally, Epictetus understood that we often act out of habit. He encouraged his students to set some standards and principle to follow and not deviate from them. As he put it, “Immediately prescribe some character and form of conducting to yourself, which you may keep both alone and in the company.
Epictetus Quotes
“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“Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.”
― Epictetus“Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
― Epictetus“There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will. ”
― Epictetus“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems”
― 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“First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do.”
― Epictetus“If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.”
― 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)
