Epictetus

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.”
-Epictetus

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

No great thing is created suddenly. There must be time. Give your best and always be kind.
-Epictetus

Nothing truly stops you. Nothing truly holds you back. For your own will is always within your control.
-Epictetus

It is difficulties that show what men are. For the future, in case of any difficulty, remember that God, like a gymnastic trainer, has pitted you against a rough antagonist. For what end? That you may be an Olympic conqueror; and this cannot be without toil.
-Epictetus

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.
-Epictetus

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

We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them.
-Epictetus

It is not he who reviles or strikes you who insults you, but your opinion that these things are insulting.
-Epictetus

Be silent for the most part, or else make only the most necessary remarks, and express these in few words.
-Epictetus