Epictetus

“The condition and characteristic of an uninstructed person is this: he never expects from himself profit (advantage) nor harm, but from externals. The condition and characteristic of a philosopher is this: he expects all advantage and all harm from himself.”

“It is much better to die of hunger unhindered by grief and fear than to live affluently beset with worry, dread, suspicion and unchecked desire.”

“Unless we place our religion and our treasure in the same thing, religion will always be sacrificed.”

“If you want to make progress, put up with being perceived as ignorant or naive in worldly matters, don't aspire to a reputation for sagacity. If you do impress others as somebody, don't altogether believe it. You have to realize, it isn't easy to keep your will in agreement with nature, as well as externals. Caring about the one inevitably means you are going to shortchange the other.”

“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.”

“Is freedom anything else than the right to live as we wish? Nothing else.”

“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.”

“If a person gave your body to any stranger he met on is way, you would certainly be angry. And do you feel no shame in handing over your own mind to be confused and mystified by anyone who happens to verbally attack you?”

“Freedom, you see, is having events go in accordance with our will, never contrary to it.”

“Men are not afraid of things, but of how they view them.”

“Don't put your purpose in one place and expect to see progress made somewhere else.”

“And where there is ignorance, there is also want of learning and instruction in essentials.”

“To accuse others for one's own misfortunes 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.”

“If you wish to be a writer, write.”

“מדרכו של כסיל להאשים את זולתו בכישלונו; מי שמתחיל להחכים מאשים את עצמו, ומי שמשכיל אינו מאשים איש.”

“אם מישהו מדבר בך סרה, השב: 'הוא אינו מודע לכל מגרעותיי, כי הוא מדבר רק על אלה שהוא יודע'.”

“כאשר אתה נועל את דלת חדרך ומכבה את האור, הישמר לעולם לא לחשוב כי אתה לבדך, כי אלוהים אתך.”

“לעולם אל תאמר לעצמך: 'לא היה כדאי לטרוח', שהרי אלה הם דברים של הדיוט, מי שנפגע מהדברים החיצוניים.”

“אתה נשמה קטנה הנושאת סביבה גופה.”

“אלוהים הפקיד אותי עם עצמי.”