Epictetus

It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.

Only the educated are free.

Don't explain your philosophy. Embody it.

It is not things that disturb us, but our judgments about things. For example, death is nothing terrible, for if it were, it would have appeared so to Socrates; but the judgment that death is terrible — that is the terrible thing.

Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.

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.

No man is free who is not master of himself.

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

It is difficulties that show what men are.

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 own actions. Things not in our control are body, property, reputation, command, and, in one word, whatever are not our own actions. (1).

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.

Never say of anything, 'I have lost it'; but, 'I have returned it.' Is your child dead? It is returned. Is your wife dead? She is returned. Is your estate taken away? Well, and is not that likewise returned?

Attach yourself to what is spiritually superior, regardless of what other people think or do. Hold to your true aspirations no matter what is going on around you.

When you have decided that a thing ought to be done and are doing it, never avoid being seen doing it, though many shall form an unfavorable opinion about it. For if it is not right, avoid doing the thing; but if it is right, why are you afraid of those who shall find fault wrongly?

Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.

He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.

In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.

Men are disturbed, not by things, but by the principles and notions which they form concerning things.

If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish and stupid.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.