Looking for timeless wisdom to gain clarity, control, and inner strength?
Epictetus quotes offer powerful insights into the Stoic mindset—helping you stay calm in chaos, focus on what matters, and live a meaningful life.
Whether you’re seeking guidance on success, self-control, or the art of living, these quotes from Epictetus deliver ancient philosophy in practical form.
Through his teachings, you’ll discover how to change your perception, accept life’s challenges, and unlock inner freedom.
Dive into each section below to find quotes that inspire discipline, perspective, and peace—just as relevant today as they were centuries ago.
Epictetus Quotes Control
🧠 Control begins within—here are 15 quotes to master what’s truly in your hands:
- 🧘♂️ Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.
- 🕊️ We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.
- 🛑 Make the best use of what is in your power and take the rest as it happens.
- 🌀 There is only one way to happiness and that is to cease worrying about things beyond our control.
- 🛡️ If you want something good, get it from yourself.
- 🧭 Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.
- 🔐 No man is free who is not master of himself.
- 🔎 It is not things themselves that disturb us, but our opinions about them.
- 🧩 First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
- 🪞 Any person capable of angering you becomes your master.
- 🎯 People are not disturbed by things, but by the view they take of them.
- 🛶 Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly your own concern.
- 🏗️ Circumstances don’t make the man, they only reveal him to himself.
- 🔁 Control thy passions lest they take vengeance on thee.
- 🚦Don’t demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do, and you will go on well.
Stoicism Epictetus Quotes
🛡️ Harness stoic strength with these 15 quotes:
- 🌲 It’s not what happens to you, but how you react that matters.
- 🧭 He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.
- 🪨 Difficulties show a man’s character.
- 🧘♂️ Practice yourself, for heaven’s sake, in little things; and thence proceed to greater.
- 🧱 The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.
- 🧩 Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.
- ⚖️ Control your passions lest they take control of you.
- 🛡️ Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.
- 💭 Man is troubled not by events, but by the meaning he gives them.
- 🕯️ We should not moor a ship with one anchor, or our life with one hope.
- 🧠 A ship should not ride on a single anchor, nor life on a single hope.
- 🌀 Be not elated at any excellence not your own.
- 🪞 No great thing is created suddenly.
- 🛶 There is only one path to happiness—let go of what’s beyond your control.
- 🧗♂️ Progress is not achieved by luck or accident, but by working on yourself daily.
Epictetus Quotes on Success
🚀 Fuel your journey with these 15 success-driven insights:
- 💡 First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.
- 🧭 Success lies in doing what must be done, not in what we want to do.
- 🏁 It’s not what happens to you but how you handle it that defines success.
- 🏗️ The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you.
- 🧱 Do not expect events to happen as you wish, but wish them to happen as they do.
- 🎯 Attach yourself to what is spiritually superior.
- 🛠️ The flourishing life is the result of effort, not chance.
- 💭 Seek not the good in external things; seek it in yourself.
- 🧘♂️ Only the educated are free.
- 🌟 You become what you give your attention to.
- 🧗♂️ If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish.
- 🛶 The more we value things outside our control, the less control we have.
- 🧱 If you want to be a writer, write.
- 🔥 Circumstances reveal the true man.
- 🎖️ True success is in self-mastery.
Best Epictetus Quotes
🌟 A selection of the most impactful Epictetus quotes:
- 🧠 It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
- 🧘♂️ He who laughs at himself never runs out of things to laugh at.
- 🛡️ Wealth consists not in having great possessions, but in having few wants.
- 🧱 First learn the meaning of what you say, and then speak.
- 🔄 Don’t just say you have read books. Show it in your actions.
- 🌊 You are a little soul carrying around a corpse.
- 🪞 Who is your master? He who has authority over any of the things on which you have set your heart.
- 🎯 To accuse others for one’s own misfortunes is a sign of want of education.
- 🧘♀️ Do not try to seem wise to others.
- 💎 The soul is dyed the color of its thoughts.
- 🛶 If you wish to be a writer, write.
- 🎭 Appearances are deceiving; truth lies within.
- 🪨 Suffering arises from trying to control the uncontrollable.
- 🛠️ No man is free who is not master of himself.
- 🧩 Nature gave us one tongue and two ears so we could listen twice as much as we speak.
Epictetus Quotes on Life
🌱 Explore life through a Stoic lens with these 15 thoughts:
- 🧘♂️ Life is only opinion.
- 🛶 We are disturbed not by events, but by our interpretations of them.
- 🔁 He who has peace within himself brings peace to the world.
- 🧠 Don’t seek everything to happen as you wish but wish for everything to happen as it actually does.
- 🕊️ Freedom is the only worthy goal in life.
- 🎯 Know what you can control and accept what you cannot.
- 💭 If you desire something good, get it from yourself.
- 🧭 No man is free unless he is master of himself.
- 🧱 Begin each day by telling yourself: Today I shall meet with interference, ingratitude, insolence, disloyalty, ill-will, and selfishness.
- 🛠️ The chief task in life is simply this: to identify and separate matters so that I can say clearly to myself which are externals not under my control, and which have to do with the choices I actually control.
- 🌟 The greater the difficulty, the more glory in surmounting it.
- 🔍 Know, first, who you are.
- 💡 You are not your body and hair-style, but your capacity for choosing well.
- 🎭 A wise man is he who does not grieve for the things he has not, but rejoices for those he has.
- 🌈 Make the best of what is in your power and take the rest as it happens.
The Art of Living Epictetus Quotes
🎨 Learn the graceful art of living with these 15 gems:
- 🧘♀️ The key to living is distinguishing between what you can control and what you cannot.
- 🌱 Life is a series of choices; choose well.
- 🛡️ The art of living is more like wrestling than dancing.
- 🎯 Success is not in control over others, but over yourself.
- 🛠️ If you want to improve, be content to be thought foolish.
- 🌊 Accept everything that happens as if you had chosen it.
- 🧠 Training yourself to be calm is the foundation of peace.
- 🎭 Do not try to seem, but to be.
- 💭 Let silence be your goal for the most part.
- 🔎 Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.
- 🔄 Each day provides the opportunity to practice virtue.
- 🪞 Look within; within is the fountain of all good.
- 🧗♂️ Keep your will in harmony with nature.
- 🕊️ The art of living is the art of dying well.
- 🧭 You must build up your life action by action.
Perception Epictetus Quotes
🔍 Shift your mindset with these 15 quotes about perception:
- 🧠 It is not events that disturb us, but our views of them.
- 🔎 Men are disturbed not by things, but by the principles and notions they form concerning things.
- 🪞 Change your perception, and you change your reality.
- 🌀 What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think they are.
- 🎭 Appearances can deceive.
- 🧭 We see things not as they are, but as we are.
- 🔄 Happiness and freedom begin with a clear understanding of one principle: Some things are within our control, and some are not.
- 💭 Control your thoughts, and you control your life.
- 🌪️ Events don’t hurt us—our judgment does.
- 🧘♂️ Do not be concerned with the opinion of others.
- 🔬 The more we value what is outside our control, the less control we have.
- 🧱 Suffering comes from the judgment, not the event.
- 🛶 To blame others is to give them power.
- 🌈 Clear thinking creates clear perception.
- 🎯 You have power over your mind—not outside events.
Conclusion
Epictetus’ timeless teachings guide us toward a life of inner peace, personal mastery, and meaningful action.
His words—rooted in Stoic principles—remind us that control, perception, and virtue are key to true freedom.
Whether you’re seeking wisdom on success, clarity in life, or the courage to let go of what you can’t change, these quotes provide steady ground in an ever-changing world.
Reflect on them, live them, and let them transform your mindset.
