Epictetus

If you wish to live a life free from sorrow, think of what is going to happen as if it had already happened.
– Epictetus

Keep your attention focused entirely on what is truly your own concern, and be clear that what belongs to others is their business and none of yours.
– Epictetus

It’s not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
– Epictetus

Freedom and slavery, the one is the name of virtue, and the other of vice, and both are acts of the will.
– Epictetus

To live a life of virtue, you have to become consistent, even when it isn’t convenient, comfortable, or easy.
– Epictetus

You become what you give your attention to…If you yourself don’t choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest.
– Epictetus

Don’t be concerned with other people’s impressions of you. They are dazzled and deluded by appearances. Stick with your purpose. This alone will strengthen your will and give your life coherence.
– Epictetus

Be careful whom you associate with. It is human to imitate the habits of those with whom we interact. We inadvertently adopt their interests, their opinions, their values, and their habit of interpreting events.
– Epictetus

You have been given your own work to do. Get to it right now, do your best at it, and don’t be concerned with who is watching you. Create your own merit.
– Epictetus

In trying to please other people, we find ourselves misdirected toward what lies outside our sphere of influence. In doing so, we lose our hold on our life’s purpose.
– Epictetus