Epictetus

“First say to yourself what you would be, then do what you have to do.”

“The greater the difficulty the more glory in surmounting it. Skillful pilots gain their reputation from storms and tempests.”

“It is not things themselves that disturb men, but their judgments about these things.”

“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.”

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

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

“He is a wise man who does not grieve for the things which he has not, but rejoices for those which he has.”

“Freedom is the only worthy goal in life. It is won by disregarding things that lie beyond our control.”

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

“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.”

“The key is to keep company only with people who uplift you, whose presence calls forth your best.”

“It is impossible to begin to learn that which one thinks one already knows.”

“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.'”

“It is not he who reviles you who hurts you, but your opinion that you are being hurt.”

“Do not seek to have events happen as you want them to, but instead want them to happen as they do happen, and your life will go well.”

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

“Wealth is not the good; poverty is not the evil; to be well or ill is another thing.”

“If you want to be happy, do not dwell on the past, do not worry about the future, focus on living fully in the present.”

“It is not death or pain that is to be dreaded, but the fear of pain or death.”

“Don't demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.”

“We have two ears and one mouth so that we can listen twice as much as we speak.”

“If you seek truth, you will not seek to gain a victory by every possible means; and when you have found truth, you need not fear being defeated.”

“Wealth is the parent of luxury and indolence, and poverty of meanness and viciousness, and both of discontent.”

“Any person capable of angering you becomes your master; he can anger you only when you permit yourself to be disturbed by him.”